One Year Ago: Compaq woos SMEs with price cuts and bundles
Compaq has cut prices on its entry-level ProSignia servers and set up server bundling deals with Novell and Cheyenne to try and increase its hold on the burgeoning SME server market. The company also announced a low cost RAID controller and extended features on its rack-mountable server range.
ProSignia 200 prices have been cut by an average £100. The entry-level ProSignia 200 5/166 Model 1/EIDE (16Mb) is reduced to £895. The Model 1600/EIDE (16Mb/1.6Gb) is now £1,120, the Model 2500/EIDE (16Mb/2.5Gb) is now £1,235 and the Model 1/SCSI (16Mb) is now £1,120. All prices exclude VAT.
Helen Twelvetree, Compaq's systems product manager, said that these prices should "keep up the pressure" from Compaq in the growing fight for SME sales. She also added that the bundling deals with selected ProSignia 200 and ProLiant 800 servers would provide "tailored solutions" to small businesses, while "setting a benchmark for value across the industry."
The Novell bundle deals involve offering five-user licences for IntranetWare for Small Business and GroupWise 5.1 on selected models. The Cheyenne bundle includes the firm's ServerSolution package with ARCServe 6 for Netware, FAXserve 5 for Netware and GroupWise and InocuLan 4 for Netware.
The RAID controller is priced at £580 and offers RAID 0,1 and 5, 1 Channel Wide-Ultra SCSI, support for up to seven drives (63Gb storage), and a 6Mb Read Cache.
Enterprise server releases include the Compaq ProLiant 6000, starting at around £10,960 and the ProLiant 850R rack-mountable server, priced at £2,855.
"People say when you're at the top, as we are with servers at the moment, there is usually only one way to go, and that's down," said Don Madden, Compaq's server product manager, "but with these new products we think we can defy gravity."
"I'm sure a few of you listened to Hugh [Jenkins - Compaq's Enterprise Group product manager] a few
years ago and thought he was certifiable for suggesting Compaq would find a spot in the rack-mountable servers market. He's still certifiable, but he was right," Madden quipped in a press conference for the launch.