Data storage giant emc disclosed May 22 that it intends to focus a substantial amount of its resources on what it sees as a growing small and midsize business market in India.
The business plan includes the launch of a dozen hardware and software products specifically for the SMB market; the opening of new sales offices in Kolkata and Chennai, along with a pair of customer support and logistics centers in Chennai and Hyderabad; and the augmentation of its channel partner sales program, EMC spokesperson Jennifer Dreyer told eWeek.
EMC, of Hopkinton, Mass., said it currently has about 200 SMB customers in India.
“India is one of the key strategic markets for EMC worldwide. It is also one of the fastest-growing midtier information management and storage markets in Asia Pacific,” said Joel Schwartz, EMC senior vice president and general manager of the companys Midrange Systems Division.
Products launched May 22 include the new EMC Clariion UltraScale architecture—EMCs end-to-end, 4G-bps Fibre Channel SAN (storage area network)—and CX3 series of networked storage systems, company officials said.
“EMC is showing tremendous momentum in India,” said Manoj Chugh, president of EMC India. “Factors like the exploding volumes of information, globalization, the opening of new market opportunities, growing compliance complexities and limited IT budgets are compelling businesses to partner with [us].”
Chugh added that EMC is “focused on adding infrastructure—both in terms of offices, customer support and logistics centers—to cater to the growing demand.”
Highlights of the other EMC offerings for the India SMB market include:
• Celerra NS350 and EMC Celerra NS704: The Celerra NS350 storage system is capable of scaling to 10TB of capacity.
• ClariionDisk Library: A new entry-level Clariion DL210 model that is designed for midsize enterprises and branch offices.
• Connectrix DS-4900B Fibre Channel SAN switch.
• Clariion AX150 and AX150i networked storage systems for SMBs.
• Retrospect 7.5: a new version of EMC Retrospect for Windows backup and recovery software.
• Storage Administrator for Exchange SMB Edition: information management software that works with the EMC Clariion AX series to simplify management of Microsoft Exchange Server data.
• RepliStor SMB Edition: guards SMBs vital information against hardware failure or sitewide disaster.
• VisualSRM SMB Edition: presents a consolidated view of a companys storage and hosts automated policies to manage it.
• eRoom SMB Edition: provides a browser-accessed, highly secure collaborative work space to share information, manage projects, and deliver products and services.
EMC recently announced the launch of its EMC Academy Program, or EAP, in India.
“The aim [of the program] is to develop a resource pool of skilled information management and storage professionals in the country. Our target is to have 1,000 trained engineers by the end of 2006,” Chugh said.
EMC already made agreements with 16 colleges and universities across India and plans to partner with up to 50 more institutions before the end of the year.
EMC Jumps the Pond(s)
EMC will focus resources on what it sees as a growing SMB market in India. The business plan includes:
* Launch a dozen hardware and software products specifically for the SMB market
* Open new sales offices in Kolkata and Chennai
* Launch a pair of customer support and logistics centers in Chennai and Hyderabad
* Augment channel partner sales program
Source: EMC
