IBM offers 30-day free trial for storage server
This initiative, called the IBM NAS TIKI (Try It, Keep It) Program, was officially rolled out here today and will be available to the rest of Asean by the end of the week.
The NAS 200 is a storage server targeted at work groups and branch-office environment. Launched in the US last month, it made its debut in Asia Pacific today through the TIKI program.
"TIKI is an AP-wide program that allows SMEs to evaluate our NAS 200 product without having to purchase it," said IBM Volume Products, Storage System Group, Asia Pacific director Daniel Ng.
The program will last for six months and may be extended if there is sufficient demand for TIKI.
"In these economically challenging times, they (the customers) want to be sure that the technology they are acquiring is what their business really needs and this program allows them to evaluate it without incurring costs,'' Ng added.
The TIKI program will also be extended to the Greater China region next week, and to Korea and Japan by the middle of this quarter, according to Ng.
"IBM has set aside over 100 boxes of NAS 200 for Asia Pacific (excluding Japan) and Asean has a chunk of that," Ng noted.
When ask if companies under the TIKI program may incur additional costs by implementing the product, Ng explained: "We'll try to make it plug and play and we do not encourage customization during the evaluation...We'd like to think that it'll be zero or minimal." He did not elaborate.
IBM also launched its NAS 300 and 300G storage servers, which are high-end NAS products, to the Singapore market today.
Although the higher end products do not fall under the TIKI programs, IBM is willing to make some exceptions.
"We will consider making the other models available to companies more often than not, provided we have available units and if their business justifies using a higher end machine," said Ng.