Snap happy to take it to the next level
Snap happy to take it to the next level
Network-Attached Storage (NAS) provider Snap Appliance is to make a play for the enterprise storage market in the coming months, going toe to toe with the likes of EMC, HDS and Network Appliance, according to a senior company official.
International Sales Director Jim Stewart revealed that the company has decided that the time is right to shift into the enterprise end of the market.
"Snap server got its start in the workgroup area, then migrated up into the departmental area of local area network environments. Now, with our product development efforts, we are definitely moving up into that entry-level area of the enterprise. We see this area as presenting a big opportunity for us."
Stewart said that Snap would be making a series of product announcements in the coming months to support this move into the higher end of the market, and revealed that, like so many other storage hardware vendors, who are aware of the gradual commoditisation of storage hardware, Snap will increasingly become more of a software oriented company.
"Our investments as a company signify that change," said Stewart, "and what you are going to be seeing from Snap throughout 2004 and going forward will be more products in the area of data management, and solutions to manage the Snap server environment across the enterprise."
The convergence of NAS and SAN in the marketplace is another trend that Snap has identified, with plans afoot to release products in the next two to three months that will address that development.
Stewart also identified Australian as a key market for Snap and said the company would be endeavouring to improve its performance here, as well as increase the support it provides to its core customers.
"We also want to get closer to the VAR (value-added reseller) channel, particularly with all these new capabilities and technology enhancements coming into the picture. We will still be supporting a two-tier distribution model, but having a tighter relationship with those strategic VAR's who have access into those top corporate accounts is going to be key for us, so our presence here is obviously going to have to increase significantly."
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