'Channel is the best vehicle to reach users effectively'

Anal K Jain has set a target of 100 percent growth for Network Appliance in

India during this fiscal to make it the second biggest storage company. In his

previous assignment at Sun Microsystems, Anal achieved a growth of 70 percent,

almost double that of industry average. As MD of NetApps, Anal wants to play the

role of a team leader in consolidating the company’s presence in the storage

market. In an exclusive interview with DQCI, Anal outlines the company’s

activities and future plans.

What role do you envisage for channel partners in NetApp’s business?



At Network Appliance, we believe that good partnerships are key to

successful products. Therefore we value our partnerships and believe in

leveraging partners’ strengths, providing healthy margins and building

long-term profitable relationships. NetApp empowers enterprises to gain

competitive advantage, improve profitability, and reduce time-to-market by

exploiting untapped value in IT infrastructures.

Our industry partners share our commitment to excellence and together we

provide integrated storage and content delivery management solutions for any

enterprise. This is also reflected in the performances of our channel partners.

Surprisingly, our channel sales has been growing faster than the company sales.

What is NetApp’s core competency?



Network Appliance is a recognized leader in enterprise storage and the

delivery of data and content on demand. NetApp solutions empower enterprises

with sustainable competitive advantage, improved profitability, and faster

time-to-market by exploiting untapped value in IT infrastructures. NetApp

storage solutions ensure that customers get information where it’s needed and

when it’s needed - more efficiently, more effectively, and more reliably than

with any other solution available. NetApp achieved $1 billion in worldwide

revenue for fiscal year 2001. NetApp today has over 35,000 systems installed

worldwide and the company’s distribution channel spans over 70 countries

around the globe.

What are the benefits of your channel certification program?



Our marketing strategies and training programs are formulated with our

channel partners being the core of activities. Individuals are given Network

Appliance recognition and industry recognition for their proven knowledge and

expertise with Network Appliance filers and NAS technologies. Apart from

certification the benefits include certification logo access, special status as

an "Enthusiast" on our NOW community forums, marketable credentials in

a leading-edge technology and market segment Industry. We also provide peer

recognition and job/career advancement opportunities apart from personal

satisfaction. Having staff technically certified on NetApp products and

technologies ensure confidence. Channel partners increase their credibility with

the customer knowing that it’s a NetApp Certified individual designing,

installing, administering, and supporting their NetApp solutions efficiently and

successfully.

Who can take the certification test?



Anyone can take the test. The tests are designed to measure the knowledge of

those individuals who design, administer, support, and install NetApp solutions.

Is it necessary to take Network Appliance technical training course before

taking the certification test?



No, but it is highly recommended that you have experience with our products

and technologies and an understanding of the information presented in our

technical training courses and support materials.

What action plan do you have at hand to reach out to the Indian market?



Through resellers of course, as we believe that they are the best vehicle to

reach users effectively. Partners are of highest significance for us and we

offer tremendous opportunity for SIs and storage specialists as they can add

value to their customers with right solutions.

NetApp always seeks quality organizations to represent, sell and support its

leading edge storage products. NetApp storage specialist not only earn good

profits from selling our storage solutions, but also from implementing these

products into businesses. By providing software services over the years,

partners can look forward to on-going revenue and profits.

The growth and success of any business depends on customer acquisition,

satisfaction and retention. NetApp has been successful in providing the highest

level of products and services by attracting some of the best talents in the

industry. Using the most effective sales and marketing tools, as well as

partnering with the right resellers, NetApp has become a market leader in

independent storage solutions provider on a single platform.

Could you elaborate on the new product that NetApp launched recently?



Our latest launch was NearStore appliances. NearStore offer cost-effective,

fast-access storage for online backup and archiving. NearStore perfectly

complements and improves existing tape backup processes by inserting economical

and simple-to-use disk-based storage between application storage and tape

libraries, in a two-stage backup configuration. Every enterprise today needs to

protect business-critical data.

Back up directly to tape from primary storage is the conventional approach. A

principal problem with this method is that it must be confined to off-peak hours

because it impacts the performance of primary online storage. Making matters

worse for global enterprises, accelerating data growth and shrinking time

windows for tape backup, aggravate this problem.

Recovering data from tape presents another critical issue: it can be arduous

and time-consuming, all while your applications and business are offline. Data

protection architecture using the NearStore appliance in concert with a tape

library addresses the problems with direct backup to tape.

Almost any type of primary storage can be backed up to NearStore-servers:

RAID and JBOD storage, desktop and notebook computers, and of course, NetApp

filers. The combination of NetApp SnapVault software with NearStore delivers a

robust and fully integrated appliance - a compelling NetApp filer backup

solution.

What is your long-term plan?



NetApp plans to grow rapidly over the next three years, providing enterprise
storage solutions to niche verticals like eBusiness establishments, technical

sectors and medium to large enterprises. NetApp also intends to establish itself

as a premier company providing storage solutions on a scalable and unique

platform in newer markets.

SUNILA PAUL in Bangalore