HP "missing a trick" with storage products, says vendor

UK storage management software vendor, StorMagic, has accused HP missing a trick by creating storage technology that is “too complex”, which it says can hinder the sales process.

“It is always interesting to witness the ways vendors find to help their channel but I feel that HP is potentially approaching the situation from the wrong angle,” says Mike Stolz, VP, sales & marketing at StorMagic. “The difficulty in fact doesn’t necessarily lie with the sales pitch but with the product and/or the technology in question. Storage solutions tend to be complex combinations of hardware and software and resellers are on a constant learning curve, a rather steep one sometimes; from SAS to FCoE via solid state storage, the pressure is permanently on.
 
“So while I nod to HP’s simplified tools to help its channel sell storage, what it should have made simpler is its products,” he adds. “Resellers and distributors don’t like complexity any more than end users do. It would have been more effective for HP to concentrate its efforts in offering a layer of integrated management to make the solutions easier and more cost effective; easier-to-manage products mean shorter sales cycle and faster salesperson ramp to revenue. In addition, in the current climate customers are more sensitive to cost, so much so in fact that in many cases they are happy to skip extra features they currently do not have a need for, in exchange for a lower price.
 
He continues: “Vendors, distributors and resellers alike should concentrate on offering enabling technologies that provide more compelling ROI for end users and faster sales cycles for the channel. In the case of storage, a virtualised solution that incorporates an integrated management layer often helps, so in this case I believe HP might have missed a trick by to addressing the symptom rather than the cause.”
 
StorMagic was founded in 2006 and says it aims to simplify SAN adoption in core and VMware IT environments. UK customers include Oxford University and the University of Liverpool.
 
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