Quantum guns for EMC in disk space

Storage vendor hopes new products will speed up adoption of deduplication and lure in rival's customers

Storage vendor Quantum has used the launch of its new range of disk-based backup products to take a swipe at rival EMC.

The firm unveiled the two latest additions to its DXi6700 family of backup systems last week, called DXi6701 and DXi6702.

Both products are aimed at mid-market and enterprise firms. They also feature Quantum's new DXi Accent deduplication software, which allows data to be backed up over low-bandwidth networks.

Speaking to Channelweb, Gabriel Chaher, vice president of EMEA and APAC marketing at Quantum, said the products are competitively priced to lure end users that have failed to realise the benefits of deduplication.

"We have set a new standard on price and performance with these products because we know that the adoption rate of deduplication is not as high as it should be," said Chaher. "We also want to commoditise the technology, which will make it easier for our channel to sell."

In terms of competition, Chaher said he hopes the new offerings will prove popular with users of EMC's Data Domain range of deduplication products.

"The leader in this market is EMC with its Data Domain Boost product," said Chaher. "We are half the price of that and our products are faster."

To take the products to market, Quantum will lean on its existing partners, added Chaher.

"In our channel, we have more partners specialising in tape than disk for historical reasons," he said. "Our objective is to get more of our tape partners selling our disk portfolio, because our penetration of the disk market is low, but we are the industry leader on the tape side."

Andy Walsky, vice president of EMEA sales at tape vendor Overland Storage, agreed that adoption of deduplication has been sluggish so far.

"The technology is quite expensive and, while it definitely does have a role to play in most customer environments, people rarely get the results they think they should with it," he added.