NetApp chases smaller VARs

Storage vendor to refresh entry-level platform to achieve growth in smaller VAR market

Storage vendor NetApp is hoping to grow revenue by chasing smaller resellers, following today's announcement that it is refreshing its entry-level platform.

The FAS2220 series was launched in June but will now be available to VARs working at the lower end of the market. A more aggressively priced "baby FlexPod" will also be available to partners serving customers with 500 to 1,000 users.

The platform facelift will mean smaller resellers that thought they could not afford NetApp will be able to take advantage of the solutions, according to Peter Rawden, the vendor's senior director of partners and pathways.

He said: "The company that buys our more aggressively priced package has the same software available to them as our largest customers who have the multi-petabyte flavour, for example.

"Although smaller companies are making a smaller overall deal-size decision, it is as significant to them as it is to large enterprises making larger purchases. It is all relative."

NetApp, whose revenue for FY12, which ended in April, stood at $6.23bn (£3.99bn), says it is business as usual for its current larger partners, but it is focusing on new growth within the market for smaller businesses.

Rawden added: "Over the past two or three years, we have recruited a large number of partners that serve the lower end of the market and now we have released product that addresses customer demand.

"It is a new market, with new partners and new opportunities. That should fuel our growth, which is good for NetApp and for our partners."