EMC makes storage simple for mid-sized enterprises and SMBs

EMC's Making Storage Simple approach encompasses a wide range of innovative EMC systems, software and services expertise, designed to help thousands of mid-sized enterprises and SMBs across the region address the major challenges of explosive information growth and spiraling costs by more effectively storing, backing up, archiving and protecting their critical application data.

Over the past three years, EMC has invested more than US$6 billion in acquisitions and research and development that help these customers simply and cost-effectively address their most difficult business challenges.

Mid-sized enterprises and SMBs are now facing the same information pressures as large enterprises, but without the luxury of large IT staffs and budgets. To help them more effectively meet their challenges, while removing complexity, EMC today is introducing a series of EMC Express Solutions comprised of the latest EMC hardware, software and services.

The new turnkey solutions, based on EMC best practices, offer easy-to-deploy capabilities that ensure best-in-class storage implementations that are "future proofed" with the flexibility and scalability to meet changing business requirements and maximize return on investment.

Now available to Middle East organizations and channel partners, the EMC Express Solutions encompass EMC's industry-leading families of storage hardware, services and software from EMC and from its acquisitions over the last three years. The new solutions, offered by EMC's growing network of resellers and distributors, include:

EMC Express Solutions for Networked Storage help customers lower storage costs through consolidation and improved centralized management. These solutions are available for direct attached storage (DAS), storage area network (SAN), network attached storage (NAS) and iSCSI (internet Small Computer Systems Interface) connectivity environments.

EMC Express Solutions for Backup and Recovery help customers improve the reliability and speed of backup and recovery processes to ensure that data is readily available at all times.

EMC Express Solutions for Archiving help customers reduce the overall cost of storing online data while complying with regulatory requirements. Utilizing a tiered storage architecture, automated data management software moves inactive files to more cost-effective storage while keeping all data available for search and retrieval.

EMC Express Solutions for Business Protectionhelp customers reduce business risk by enabling cost-effective remote copying of online and archived application data so that the data can be quickly accessed to recover from primary site outages.

"The EMC Express Solutions combine good products, a trusted brand, turnkey packaging with services, and easy procurement," said Mike Fisch, Senior Analyst with The Clipper Group, technology acquisition consultants based in Wellesley, Massachusetts. "Mid-sized enterprises tend to be underserved, and we expect these solutions will be well received because they address the information storage problems faced by businesses of all sizes."

Mohammed Amin, regional manager, EMC Middle East, added, "Making Storage Simple was created especially for customers in the mid-sized enterprise and SMB segments - the majority of the business community here in the Middle East. The message from these customers was clear: - 'We want advanced functionality, at an affordable price, packaged for simple deployment.'

"The Express Solutions are purpose-built with these requirements in mind, and we've made it easier for our partners to deliver them. These customers don't simply want point products; they want a complete solution with a roadmap to support their future growth. Our regional partners are being positioned to deliver these solutions to customers today and help them quickly deploy them to get fast returns on their investment with EMC. We have been training our partners over the last quarter to ensure that they can offer customers a rapid Express Solutions deployment," added Amin.

New EMC Resources Help Partners Custom Configure and Finance Express Solutions

To help partners custom configure and deliver these Express Solutions, EMC has developed a new web-based tool that expedites the process of configuring and ordering them. Based on the customer's application environment, partners simply answer a short series of questions in the Express Solutions Wizard to automatically create and order a solution that is validated to satisfy that customer's requirements.

Over the past three years, the global number of EMC resellers, distributors and other channel partners has more than tripled, and this is the latest investment to help make it easier for EMC and its partners to work together. In April, EMC will begin rolling out an enhanced Velocity Channel Partner programme that provides a consistent set of training programs and incentives for all partners who offer EMC hardware, software and services.

In addition to teaming with its Velocity Partners, EMC also has teamed with technology partners, including Cisco, Intel and Microsoft to ensure EMC Express Solutions take advantage of all of the features and functionality of these companies' leading technology and best practices.

"We see mid-sized enterprises are turning to us to consolidate and simplify their technology infrastructures as well as improve their backup/recovery performance over the network," said Buck Gee, Vice President of Business Operations - Data Center Technology Group, Cisco Systems. "The EMC Express Solutions take advantage of Cisco's expertise in embedded network intelligence such as multiprotocol support, Virtual SANs and comprehensive security. Together we're offering customers a scalable, best-of-breed solution that allows them to cost effectively manage and scale their IT environments as business needs change."