Veritas, IBM Plan Linux Bundles For IBM Partners
Scheduled to be available in the United States in early 2005, the Veritas-IBM bundles include hardware, software and services and start at about $30,000, according to Veritas. The solutions include Veritas' Cluster Server, Storage Foundation and Storage Foundation for Oracle RAC software on IBM's Intel-based xSeries servers. Tempe, Ariz.-based Avnet Partner Solutions, which assembled the bundles, will distribute them through the IBM Business Partner channel.
To sell the bundles, IBM Business Partners must participate in IBM's Value Advantage Plus program, Veritas said. The program enables partners to earn higher discounts and more incentives when they sell their services with IBM software. Veritas, IBM and Avnet will provide joint channel marketing, sales training and support for the solutions.
The bundles reflect customer demand for a complete solution, especially as Linux increasingly moves into enterprise settings, said Sanjay Poonen, vice president of strategic alliances at Veritas. "In this market, customers prefer to get their solutions from a single vendor, and resellers get the benefit of full training, marketing, services and support from Avnet," he said.
Veritas previously has teamed with other hardware vendors on bundles, but this is the first time one so significant has been put together for Linux, Poonen said. "We've been more focused on Unix in the past, but the trend for Linux is to get more enterprise-ready," he said. "As Linux gets into more heterogeneous settings, we can help because we are the market leader in heterogeneous settings."
Several other storage vendors also launched new solutions and channel programs at LinuxWorld this week:
• Arkeia, an enterprise network backup software vendor targeting the Linux space, unveiled its first formal channel program. The new program gives solution providers unlimited presales support, free internal licenses for testing, a lead-protection program and renewable annuities as customers continue to buy software licenses, said Rick DiViesti, director of sales at the Carlsbad, Calif.-based company, which has focused on selling software through electronic distribution. Arkeia aims to recruit solution provider partners with strong storage and Linux experience, DiViesti said. About 65 percent of Arkeia's North American business comes via the channel, and the vendor hopes to boost that number to 90 percent, he said.
• Arkeia and Silicon Graphics Inc. (SGI) also showcased a bundle featuring an SGI Altix 350 server and Arkeia Network Backup software for data backups in technical computing environments in the research, education and government sectors. The bundle, which protects as many as 10 client servers, includes Arkeia Data Encryption and the Arkeia Tape Archive modules. Under a limited-time promotion, customers can lease the server from SGI starting at $370.30 per month for 36 months, with the software license costing $1,919, or 80 percent under the software's list price.
• LSI Logic introduced its first SATA-II RAID controller card. The MegaRAID SATA 300 8x controller offers twice the speed of the Milpitas, Calif.-based company's SATA-I controller, or about 3-Gbyte-per-second throughput. In addition, it includes native command queuing and full backward compatibility with SATA-I hard drives, according to LSI.
• San Diego-based BakBone Software announced the general availability of its NetVault enterprise data-protection software with support for Red Hat Enterprise Linux Version 4. The company said Linux support for Intel x86-based platforms is now available as well, and support for IBM PowerPC, Intel Itanium and AMD Opteron systems is expected next quarter. BakBone, too, said it now supports Novell's Open Enterprise Server platform, including the NetWare and SUSE Linux platforms.
• CommVault said its QiNetix Unified Data Management software now offers extended backup and recovery support for Novell enterprise server operating systems, including Novell NetWare, Novell SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 9 and Novell Open Enterprise Server. The QiNetix suite includes CommVault's Galaxy Backup and Recovery solution. The Oceanport, N.J.-based vendor said support for QiNetix Galaxy for NetWare and Novell SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 9 will be available starting this week, and support for Novell Open Enterprise Server support is expected later this year.
• Yosemite Technologies released a new service pack for its Yosemite TapeWare Release 7 product line with heterogeneous backup-to-disk functionality. The software allows centralized backup via a three-tier architecture for one to 20 servers across heterogeneous environments, including Red Hat and SUSE Linux as well as Windows, NetWare and Unix. San Jose, Calif.-based Yosemite said it expects the new version to be available by the end of the month.