Storage giant EMC has become the latest big name IT company to try and diversify from the corporate market with the release of a set of hardware and software products aimed at the small business market.
The company claimed its EMC Insignia line of products will help smaller organisations “to store, manage, protect and share vital business information” and exploit its “information management and storage expertise”.
In reply to those inclined to be sceptical about its ability to address the small business world, EMC argued it was building on the expertise acquired in the small business market by Dantz, the maker of Retrospect backup and recovery software it acquired in October 2004.
There are six products in the range: Clariion AX Series disk arrays, EMC Storage Administrator for Exchange SMB Edition, EMC Retrospect, EMC Replistor SMB Edition, EMC VisualSRM SMB Edition storage resource management software and EMC Eroom SMB Edition collaboration software.
Khalid Arif, EMC Insignia, regional channel manager, UK and Ireland, said it was offering small business customers “a single unified brand for hardware and software”. Insignia products were “reasonably priced, world class and tested” and the brand was “something small business can identify with”.
Rival companies were trying to sell small companies products which were more suited to large enterprises, but the EMC Insignia range was “adjusted to their requirements”. The small business and enterprise products “are not the same. We have a clear strategy of products being adapted specifically for small business customers”.
Speaking at the launch of EMC Insignia, Ray Boggs, vice president of SMB Research at IDC said small businesses did not have the financial and IT resources to deploy the same comprehensive approaches to storage as enterprise companies. The EMC Insignia range offered small businesses “the flexibility of a complete portfolio of capabilities that work together and can be put into place when the time is right”.
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