Netapp reinforces its midsize enterprise initiative with new FAS2000 series offerings, dedicated channel support

NetApp (NASDAQ: NTAP) today reinforced its mid-size enterprise (MSE) initiative, including new FAS2000 series offerings and dedicated channel support. The new FAS2040 storage system provides customers with increased performance and capacity to handle demanding Microsoft Windows storage consolidation and virtualisation workloads. NetApp also announced significant price reductions on its FAS2020 systems and associated software. With today's product announcements, NetApp shows again its commitment to the fast growing MSE market and its channel partners. Besides offering partners a truly competitive product range for mid-sized and distributed enterprises, NetApp further simplified the purchase processes to make doing business with NetApp as easy as possible.

The initiative launched in May 2008 throughout Europe was designed specifically for resellers addressing data storage needs of the MSE market, marking the foundation of the Silver partner level within NetApp's Partner Program. Within one-a-half years, NetApp has seen a tremendous take up throughout Europe among partners dedicated to selling the FAS2000 series with a number of pre-established and certified configurations.

To make the FAS2000 family easier to sell for all partner types, NetApp has introduced pre-configured bundles and created a simplified ordering process for the entire FAS2000 Series product line. This streamlined approach enables distributors and VARs to increase operational efficiencies and further drive revenue without unnecessary administrative hassles. This straightforward strategy combined with the FAS2020's enhanced protocol support, extensive solution-set, and appealing price point provides partners with the ability to sell to a broader set of customers and presents new opportunities for providing added value to those customers. These changes are just the latest enhancements to the NetApp Partner Program designed to make it easier to do business with NetApp and provide best-in-class solutions.

“The NetApp FAS2020 has provided us with a storage system that truly meets the needs of our customers with smaller IT organisations,” said Mark van Rensburg, Executive: Managed Services at Intuate Group, a NetApp Silver Partner. “With the latest improvements to the FAS2020, both from a price, product and ordering perspective, we expect to see accelerated sales. Overall, these enhancements show NetApp's continued commitment to its partners, enable us for success and strengthen NetApp's position as a leader in the channel.”

“Today's announcement continues to build upon NetApp's award-winning FAS2000 product line to provide midsize customers with proven storage solutions that not only provide great value but also a feature-set that addresses the key requirements for Microsoft Windows storage consolidation and virtualisation workloads,” said Matthew Barker, Channel Manager for South Africa, NetApp. “Also, the simplified ordering process and reduced price point for the FAS2020 offers our channel partners, who play such a critical role in NetApp's success, with a more competitive and compelling product to sell to their customers.”

The FAS2040 joins NetApp's award-winning FAS2000 product family. Leveraging NetApp's unified storage architecture and inherent storage efficiency features, the FAS2040 provides customers with double the performance of any existing FAS2000 storage system and increased storage capacity of up to 30%, making it ideal for handling the workloads in Microsoft Windows storage consolidation and virtualised environments.

Starting at ZAR 75 000, the updated FAS2020 offers midsized, price conscious IT organisations with a simple, well integrated solution for enterprise class functionality at an unprecedented price point. The FAS2020 now also offers multi-protocol support, including CIFS and NFS, for added flexibility at no extra charge. The enhancements make the FAS2020 one of the industry's best values for the midsize enterprise market - and make simple and flexible unified storage a reality for a broader set of customers.

“With the ever-increasing amount of data in our Windows environment, we needed a more efficient and flexible storage infrastructure,” said Deon Olivier, IT Manager at Lurgi South Africa, a NetApp customer. “NetApp's affordable and flexible FAS2000 system and unified storage architecture was a great fit, creating a centralised infrastructure for all of our mission critical files. NetApp enabled us to implement a solution that not only meets our needs today but also affordably scales up as our storage requirements grow.”

As further testament to NetApp's ability to handle Microsoft environment workloads, NetApp earlier this year was named Microsoft 2009 Storage Solutions Partner of the year.

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Customer pricing for the FAS2000 series starts at ZAR 75 000 and is subject to change without prior notice. The FAS2020 and FAS2040 are available immediately.