As New York’s summer season began its annual transition into the autumnal months, it seemed fitting that Symantec chose the city and this period to detail the changes it has undergone since its acquisition of storage software vendor Veritas last year (CRN, 20 December).

Symantec also used the recent US conference as a launch pad for two of its latest Windows-based storage software offerings. BackUp Exec 10d combines the common features and functionality of the standard Veritas BackUp Exec software line, but has now been redesigned to focus on the backup and recovery of data from disk-to-disk-to-tape IT infrastructures.

LiveState Recovery 6.0, also designed for disk-based architectures and made possible through Syman-tec’s acquisition of PowerQuest in September 2003, enables end-users to recover entire servers of information in just a couple of minutes in the event of a failure, rather then having to rely on outsourced management contracts or internal IT departments to do it for them.

Speaking exclusively to CRN, Gary Bloom, vice-chairman of Symantec, told how channel partners would “reap the benefits” of its two latest storage software products.

“For all the partners I believe this will prove to be a very beneficial announcement. The partner opportunity here is in two sections. First is the opportunity for upgrading the BackUp Exec customer base [to BackUp Exec 10d] and helping them to implement a disk-based recovery strategy. Second is adding on the additional cross-sell opportunity for the Backup Exec partners to cross-sell the LiveState Recovery product and to help customers to set it up, implement and configure it,” he said.

Jeremy Burton, senior vice president of the data management group at Symantec, added to Bloom’s comments. “Channel partners have been good with BackUp Exec but we are now opening new revenue streams for them and will be developing a broader portfolio following the merger.”

Stuart Hayward, commercial director of reseller WStore, said the announcement of the two software products was positive.

“I’m glad to see Symnatec has finally got some software out following its Veritas acquisition. It also shows that it is sticking to its key strengths and the release has calmed many channel partners’ fears.

“Continuous data protection [in Backup Exec 10d] is a fantastic proposition for resellers as it means sales will be easier for us because we no longer have to talk to customers about backup windows,” he said.

Symantec VAR Power Consulting focuses its sales efforts into the below 5,000-user space and Greg Barry, business development manager at the reseller, said the two new products would enable it to further tap into the SME market.

“Previously we needed to generate demand, such as through cold-calls, but now we have customers coming to us. We do sometimes find that we lose sales to Symantec’s direct sales force, but it cannot add the value that we can,” he said.

Bloom spent much of the conference talking up the supremacy of disk over tape. “Backup doesn’t matter and recovery does, because that’s what the end-user sees. Tape was good, but ultimately something better would come along because of, for example, improved functionality. Disk is faster, cheaper and, more importantly, better,” he said.

Ray Paquet, Gartner’s managing vice president, said that progression towards disk as a means of data storage was unavoidable. “Disk-to-disk is emerging as the primary means for recovery and will be even more so over the coming years, which will eventually lead to a continuous data protection strategy with end-users recovering data themselves, and for this disk is needed,” he said.

Paquet added that disk-to-disk as a primary storage method had been driven mainly by Serial ATA (SATA) technology, but that tape was by no means a ‘dead technology’. “This doesn’t mean that tape will go away, just that it will move to more of a tertiary option. As long as humans are involved in tape data there will be problems and this doesn’t happen with disk,” he said.

Whilst Bloom and numerous other Symantec executives were keen to promote the benefits of a disk-based storage strategy, attendees at the conference were also keen for an explanation of how Symantec’s acquisition of Veritas would now direct the vendor’s focus, and more importantly, what changes channel partners could expect as a result.

Symantec has been unforthcoming with information following the merger, however, Bloom confided in CRN that Symantec’s Value programme and Veritas’s VIP programme would eventually morph into a single channel programme.

“One of the early commitments we made to our partners is that we would do nothing to disrupt their business. Partner programmes are a process not an event, and as such there is no need to disrupt partner sales by changing them. We will eventually rollout new programmes and morph programmes together, but this will be done gradually and over time. There will be no single big announcement,” he said.

Julie Parrish, vice-president of global channel sales and strategies at Symantec, added to Bloom’s comments, and said that partners can expect to receive a continual sales thrust from Symantec.

“We want to maintain momentum for channel partners and these new products are part of that. For example, BackUp Exec 10d and LiveState Recovery 6.0 expand partners’ services opportunity,” she said.

However, Parrish claimed that Symantec would not be looking to expand its channel partner numbers as a result of its latest software announcements or the acquisition.

“We have the channel we need currently and 90 per cent of our sales come through partners,” she said.

Parrish resisted claims that Symantec already has too many partners to maintain an effective and healthy reseller to sales-opportunity ratio. “In the UK we do have quite a lot of resellers, but they all bring something different to the market and there are enough sales opportunities for resellers not to be fighting over the same piece of the pie,” she said.

Channel players have been forced to get used to the continuing consolidation in the IT sector, and the storage arena has been through more than most. In June, Decru promised to retain its existing channel structure and to remain as a separate company – for the time being – following its $272m acquisition by Network Appliance ( CRN, 27 June).

In August EMC, arguably one of the most acquisitive firms of the year to date, stretched its purse-strings

to purchase NAS storage vendor Rainfinity for $100m and virtualisation vendor Maranti Networks for $5m ( CRN, 29 August).

Barry said that Symantec’s acquisition of Veritas, surely yet another example of market consolidation, was positive for Power Consulting.

“Market consolidation is a good thing for the channel as it means we don’t have to think too much and work with too many vendors. But too much consolidation would be a bad thing and vendors have to draw the line somewhere,” he said.

Wstore’s Hayward added that the merger of the two firms had so far proved positive, but warned Symantec that, as the integration of the two companies becomes tighter, consolidating efforts with partners could be dangerous.

“We’ve had no problems with the merger so far and amalgamating the Veritas and Symantec partner programmes would be positive for us because we would receive a consolidated message.

“However, we don’t want to start receiving consolidated funding from Symantec/Veritas, as we did following Hewlett-Packard’s acquisition of Compaq, because that could lead to lower funding levels for marketing activities,” he said.

Bloom concluded by reiterating that the merger of Symantec and Veritas had already been completed at the management level, but that channel partners would not see all of the changes completed until summer next year.

“Ultimately you have to merge the lanes because you can’t get from Veritas to Symantec without doing that. For partners the lines of delineation will be very hard to find nine months from now and it really is a stay in your lanes out of the starting blocks view. We will merge the lanes as we go down the road and make the journey together,” he said.

james_sherwood@vnu.co.uk