StorMagic launches iSCSI SAN for SMBs 26 September, 2007 By Patricia Pickett

According to Mike Stolz, vice president of marketing with StorMagic, the vendor made a "conscious decision to go after SMBs," using a channel-only approach. "That really affected a lot of what we put into the product and our go-to-market strategy, how we formed the company and where our priorities are."

Stolz noted that one of the typical challenges for SMBs is how to manage data growth in their environments. The burden of storage management is usually placed on the shoulders of small teams that have to deal with an increasing number of software packages in order to manage and back up data. "(In SMBs) we typically find IT generalists that are already managing servers or phones and they don't have the bandwidth, technical capabilities or people power to be able to manage storage environments," he said.

Adding to that challenge is the fact that most data and storage growth issues have typically been solved by adding servers and disks, which increases the storage administration burden and poses the problem of downtime when data has to be moved to new storage, he said.

SMBs have the same kinds of data availability and access concerns as those of larger enterprises, "but they don't have the infrastructure and capabilities to address that," and they don't have huge amounts of money to spend either, Stolz added.

According to StorMagic, its SM Series software, which costs $8,000, enables users to logically consolidate their storage volumes into a single pool, which simplifies storage management and makes it easier to adapt to changing business needs. Users can monitor capacity usage and throughput, which can be balanced and optimized by dynamically migrating volumes. RAID and snapshot technologies offer local data protection for backup, retention or compliance purposes. System management is possible from either a local or remote standpoint, which means that small businesses or branch offices don't necessarily need an on-site administrator.

Stolz said the software can be installed in six steps and features a Windows-based interface that enables users to quickly set up and configure their iSCSI-based SAN without impacting their ongoing activities. In addition to Windows, the product supports Novell NetWare, RedHat and SuSE Linux, and Mac OS X through a web-based graphical user interface (GUI).

The SM Series launch opens up opportunities for value-added resellers (VARs) that can provide the software as part of a solution along with servers and storage, as well as services in the form of remote management, since the software provides a way to manage multiple systems from a single console, said Stolz. "SMBs may choose to outsource some of that traditional storage management that they can't do internally and the reseller can provide that service."

StorMagic is currently in the process of recruiting channel partners, with a short-term goal of 50 to 60 partners from around the globe, and approximately 40 of those coming out of North America, Stolz said. The vendor is looking for small to mid-size, regionally-oriented partners that are currently catering to SMBs and that are selling services associated with their products. While it is currently laying the foundation for a formal channel program, StorMagic expects to be able to officially announce details of the program, as well as the names of its first partners, in mid-November.

The product unveiling coincides with StorMagic's official debut as a company, although it has technically existed since 2006. The firm has offices in Bristol, U.K. and in Bloomington, Minn.