Ideal looks for San package resellers

Distributor Ideal Enterprise Solutions is looking for resellers to push its new storage area network (San) offering for small and medium sized businesses.

The SANplicity product will give resellers access to six pre-bundled San solutions, from entry-level to storage consolidation and high availability Sans tailored to meet end user requirements, said Ian Lockhart, strategic projects manager at Ideal.

San companies Emulex, Eurologic and Vixel have signed up for the scheme.

The packages are aimed at "cutting out the confusion of multiple vendors", according to Lockhart.

"In the past, if separate components were purchased from different vendors, competitive purchase prices would have been taken advantage of, but the reseller or end user would need to design, test and support the resulting system themselves," he said.

Lockhart added that this was a "significant barrier" to the development of solutions, often limiting the customer's purchase choice to the major original equipment manufacturers.

"We want to create simplicity and, more crucially, supply the support," he explained. "The technology is already out there, but that isn't the issue. The support is the key. This model has been very successful in the US."

According to analyst group IDC, the European storage services market is set to reach $10bn (£6.95bn) by the end of 2005.

IDC analyst Lionel Lamy said that storage had now become a strategic project for IT managers. "Companies want to maximise the use and effectiveness of previous storage investment [which] is pushing the development of storage services forward," he concluded.