Sun eyes third slot in AU storage space
Sun Microsystems Australia plans to leap past Dell and EMC in storage market share over the next six to 12 months as it reaps the benefits of its StorageTek acquisition.
Anthony Clarke, head of Sun Microsystems Australia's storage group and an ex-StorageTek employee, said the marriage of the two vendors was already paying strong dividends.
The StorageTek business in Australia had grown by 16 percent in the first quarter, according to Clarke.
"There were customers who invested back in StorageTek, back in Sun, on mainframe technologies.
"[That was despite] word in the marketplace about what Sun's commitment to the mainframe was," he told a press briefing.
HP currently leads the local storage marketplace, followed by IBM, EMC, Dell and Sun, according to analysts International Data Corp.
However Clarke said with the complementary products offerred by both Sun and StorageTek, the combined entity would surpass its rivals to take the number three position within 12 months.
"We're only the fifth month into integration [of the companies]...In a typical sales cycle, talking to customers and understanding requirements right through to implementation of significant storage infrastructure is a six, nine, twelve month sales cycle.
"So I expect to be able to stand up here in six months time or 12 months time and say 'We're in at number three'."
In recent months, the federal Department of Employment and Workplace Relations had replaced all its tape and reintroduced virtualisation into its mainframe environment using Sun storage, according to Clarke.
James Cook University also made a significant reinvestment with Sun during the same time, he said. Griffith University in Queensland made a similar move.
StorageTek could now take advantage of Sun's high-value after-market offerings, such as consulting services.
"Joining with Sun gives us a complete end-to-end [solution]. So all of the places we weren't able to satisfy customers demands, tier 1 storage...we now have a market leading story there right down to low-end disk space...So we're now finding ourselves engaged with customers far earlier via this acquisition."
Also fuelling growth would be a relaunched storage partner program later this year, he said.
Before its acquisition by Sun, StorageTek had around 150 staff in Australia. Sales staff had been integrated into Sun offices around the country, except for Sydney, where the transition was yet to take place.
Sun now has around 100 staff in its storage group, as some rationalisation had occurred around non-core business functions.