EMC tackles the low-end of storage
Published: 31 Mar 2004 13:15 BST
EMC is set to refresh its midrange storage line with new products which could go as low as $5,000 (£2,725), a senior company official hinted.
The company markets network storage hardware aimed at medium-sized companies under its Clariion CX product range. The most basic configuration for the CX200, the low-end member of EMC's existing midtier offerings, costs about $10,000.
"We'll have products later this year that go even further downstream, about half of that," said Steven Fitz, EMC's president for Asia-Pacific and Japan.
The firm currently sells its midrange series directly as well as through partners like Dell Computer. In Asia, the company recently inked a similar agreement with Samsung. Under the pact, the electronics giant will resell EMC's CX machines in Korea under the Samsung brand name, he said.
Fitz stressed more of such alliances are needed if the firm is to expand its foothold in the cutthroat midrange storage market. Besides EMC, other storage giants like IBM and Hewlett-Packard (HP) are also vying for a share of the spoils, turning this segment into a low-margin battlefield.
"I view the mid-tier as a green field for us, as in we don’t have mindshare there historically," he said. "Our challenge and opportunity is really to find more partners to help us reach that market."
Industry watchers that CNETAsia spoke to echoed his view. "EMC is a major provider of storage in Asia-Pacific but EMC only derives 10 percent to 15 percent of their storage hardware revenue from Clariion-based products," said Phil Sargeant, Gartner Australasia's research director for servers and storage. "IBM and HP actually sell more midrange storage than EMC."
To bolster its impending low-end storage charge, Leong Chee-Ming, IDC Asia-Pacific's senior research manager for enterprise storage, said EMC could again enlist the help of longtime ally Dell.
"A lower price point would be attractive to small and medium-sized companies. However, the lower price point, and thus lower margin, for the lower-than-CX200 product would make it a more economically suitable for EMC's partners like Dell to distribute," Leong said.
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