Magirus expands vBundles datacentre range

Distributor adds new EMC offerings to private cloud product packages

Magirus has capitalised on the launch of EMC's SMB storage line by using it to expand its vBundles private cloud-enabling datacentre portfolio.

The pan-European distributor has been marketing vBundle as an SMB-focused alternative to the Virtual Computing Environment's (VCE) Vblock packages since last September.

The infrastructure packages are created using EMC storage, Cisco networking and servers, and VMware's virtualisation software.

Following the launch of EMC's new mid-market and SMB-focused products (VNX and VNXe) in January, Magirus has now brought to market three new vBundles.

They include the entry-level VNXe 3100 vBundle, which is designed for SMBs with up to 25 virtual machines, and the mid-range VNX 3300 vBundle, which can support up to 50.

The VNX 5300 vBundle is the largest of the new additions and can support up to 100 virtual machines. It also offers additional storage management capabilities.

Speaking to ChannelWeb, Denise Bryant (pictured), UK managing director of Magirus, said the new packages should prompt an upturn in demand from partners.

"We had a lot of partners who were very enthusiastic about the launch of vBundles, but decided to hold off because they wanted to wait until EMC's new products were launched and integrated," Bryant explained.

The packages are also covered by a single SKU (despite containing products from three different vendors) which has made them an easy sell for partners, she claimed.

"The packages allow partners to talk about cloud to their customers in an easy way because they do not have to have long-winded conversations about what hardware to use because it is already taken care of," she said.

"This is helping my smaller partners, as well as the ones with large telesales teams, because it is all based on a single SKU."

Brett Edgecombe, managing director of Magirus partner 101 Data Solutions, claims adding VNX into a vBundle makes the overall package three times faster.

"[This] gives our customers the confidence to migrate to private cloud implementations and reap the benefits that were previously only available to larger organisations," he added.