EMC Corporation has announced that the EMC VNXe unified storage solution won CRN's 2011 Tech Innovator award in the storage category. The award honours new products or solutions introduced within the last year that drive advances in technology to the channel.
Companies on this exclusive list recently implemented innovative methods to bridge the gap between current challenges and solutions facing channel executives today.
The Tech Innovator recognition is the latest in a series of channel-related accolades EMC has received. In August 2011, CRN named EMC 'Company of the Year' in three ARC award categories - SMB Network Storage, Enterprise Network Storage and Backup & Recovery Software. This was EMC's first-ever inclusion and recognition in the SMB Network Storage category, a direct result of the VNXe launch in January and successful channel-centric go-to-market strategy for it.
In February, EMC's Gregg Ambulos, Senior Vice-President of Global Channel Sales, was named a Channel Chief by CRN for his leadership of EMC's global go-to-market strategy for Velocity solution provider and distribution partners, including implementing several new programmes that provide opportunities for partners to increase their profitability through more efficient and cost-effective training and the ability to deliver more value-added services.
CRN selected EMC VNXe, available only through EMC Velocity Solution Provider Programme partners, as the most innovative storage technology for its groundbreaking design that delivers the world's most simple, efficient and affordable unified storage for small- and medium-sized businesses (SME) and the IT generalist.
The VNXe is the result of a multi-year development effort to design a product that specifically meets the needs of customers who require a cost-effective solution with robust features. With an entry price of less than $10 000 (USD), its small form factor, management simplicity, unified multi-protocol architecture, and application-aware management deliver the ideal consolidation/virtualisation storage solution for SME environments and those in the mid-market and enterprise, where IT generalists need solid storage solutions.
EMC VNXe provides customers with:
* Breakthrough simplicity
* Powerful application-based provisioning wizards, including support for Microsoft Exchange Server, Microsoft Hyper-V, and VMware vSphere. Provisioning storage for 500 mailboxes or 100 gigabytes of virtual server storage can be done in less than 10 clicks.
* 4X faster to provision and protect SharePoint versus standard tools for Microsoft administrators.
* Increased efficiency
* Compact 2U and 3U packaging fits almost any environment.
* Built-in data protection, including replication.
* Advanced efficiency features including thin provisioning, file de-duplication, and compression reduce disk space used by up to 50%.
Supporting quotes:
“NORTHSTAR Trade Finance supports Canadian exporters by offering financing to credit-worthy buyers of eligible Canadian goods and services, therefore, our customer, transactional, and financial data is of critical importance to company operations. We recently replaced our HP storage with the EMC VNXe because we need a well-performing, easy to manage system that can keep pace with our ever-growing data storage requirements.
“It's also more innovative and less expensive. We considered Dell, but their management interface isn't as simple as the VNXe. Since implementing the VNXe, we're seeing almost four times better performance and we have the ability to do things that our previous system wouldn't allow, such as configuring storage volumes quickly and running one VM per application with no downtime.”
Pardave Lehry, Technical Analyst, NORTHSTAR Trade Finance
“Not only has EMC made the VNXe unified storage simple, efficient, and affordable for the end-user, they've put in a lot of consideration to ensure that solution providers are successful when it comes to learning and selling the technology. The VNXe approach is a clear differentiator for EMC as it is an easy to quote, sell, and configure channel-only product.”
Howard Goldberg, Vice-President of the North American Storage and Networking Businesses for Arrow Enterprise Computing Solutions, a business segment of Arrow Electronics.
“Since EMC delivered VNXe earlier this year, Avnet has seen an increase in the adoption rate by our partners and their end-customers. It is a unique product that is affordable as well as easy to use. Avnet's success with VNXe was also helped by enhancements EMC made to its Velocity Programme. That made it easier for Avnet to incorporate Velocity into our own enablement programme, which supports our partners so they can sell the product with shorter ramp up time and lower investment cost.”
Cheryl Neal, Vice-President Vendor Management, Technology Infrastructure Solutions, Avnet Technology Solutions
“We're seeing a lot of demand from SMB companies for simple yet affordable unified storage systems. Whether large or small, organisations must keep up with the enormous amount of data they continue to generate and won't settle for anything less than EMC's VNXE can deliver. Its innovative features and proven reliability make it a top choice for our customers.”
Matt Soroka, Director, Server, Storage & Power, CDW Corporation
“In today's challenging business environment, it's more important than ever to discover, nurture and reward new ideas. This year's Tech Innovator Awards recognises technology companies that have used original methods or technologies to deliver cutting-edge products and partner support. We congratulate EMC on their success, and applaud them for breaking away from traditional thinking to create completely new and unique channel opportunities.”
Kelley Damore, Vice-President, Editorial Director for UBM Channel
EMC executive quotes:
“We are truly honoured that CRN has selected the EMC VNXe unified storage as the most innovative storage technology of 2011. Being recognised as a 2011 Tech Innovator is further proof of EMC's ongoing commitment to providing our Velocity partners with the industry's most simple, efficient, and affordable unified storage solutions in the market.”
Riaan de Leeuw, Unified Infrastructure Group Sales Manager, EMC Southern Africa
CRN's 2011 Tech Innovators were nominated by their individual companies, with final selections made by the editors of CRN and the CRN Test Centre. More than 250 nominations were reviewed for 18 categories.
Additional resources:
* EMC VNXe Product Information
* EMC Velocity Solution Provider Programme
* Join the @ EMCchannel conversation on Twitter
* Connect with EMC via Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, LinkedIn and ECN
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EMC
EMC Corporation is a global leader in enabling business and service providers to transform their operations and deliver IT as a service. Fundamental to this transformation is cloud computing. Through innovative products and services, EMC accelerates the journey to cloud computing, helping IT departments to store, manage, protect and analyse their most valuable asset - information - in a more agile, trusted and cost-efficient way. Additional information about EMC can be found at www.EMC.com.
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