EMC revs up SMB presence 21 July, 2008 By Paul Weinberg

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Hence, it makes more sense to deliver newly bundled software products targeting the entry level via the Iomega's worldwide network of 16,000 channel partners than it is to venture via EMC's own enterprise oriented partners under its Velocity program, stated Jonathan Huberman, president of the consumer and small business products group at EMC Corporation.

"We are maintaining our Iomega [channel] program; we are not merging into the EMC [channel] program."

Iomega external hard drives now include new downloadable software bundle that integrates EMC Retrospect Express backup and recovery software with Mozy online backup service.

Prices range from $150 for a home network hard drive to about $325 for a one terabyte network attached storage box that EMC is making available later this summer.

EMC is tying together products stemming from the acquisition of Iomega, Dantz (the makers of Retrospect) and Berkeley Data Systems (the developer of Mozy).

"This is the first step in integrating EMC's vast array of enterprise level technologies and bringing them down to the consumer and small midsized business," stated Huberman. In the future EMC will add other items such as EMC Avamar's data de-duplication and EMC RSA authentication solutions to the mix, he told eChannelLine.

Huberman stressed that Iomega partners will not need specialized training to sell and service these new software offerings since they are menu-driven, easy to use and just require one interface for access.

"We are not requiring all partners or consumers to learn new things. We want to make it as seamless and user friendly and frankly intuitive."

EMCs integration of its Iomega, Retrospect, and Mozy products provides what industry analyst David Hill described as "a comprehensive data protection solution" that offers local protection for operational recovery and remote protection for disaster recovery. He also noted that EMC has demonstrated via its Dantz acquisition that it can work with SMB and consumer oriented channels.

"Consumers and smaller businesses should find this packaging very attractive. Such a solution requires channel partners -- in contrast to the direct sales for larger businesses, explained Hill, a principal at the Mesabi Group.

EMC recognizes that the SMB consists of diverse elements, observed Greg Schulz, founder and industry analyst at Storage I/O.

"With the Iomega acquisition, EMC is able to leverage a brand name even more known than Dantz with solutions that include NAS file servers from the SOHO up into the SMB to the point where EMC traditional products scale and fit from a price, capacity and performance point."

He noted that Iomega also gives EMC a recognizable brand name, distribution channel and partner ecosystem to leverage for placing products like Dantz/Retrospect, Mozy and others into the market.

"If EMC can pull all the pieces together and execute, then it could very well be a case of 'look out HP, IBM and Dell' [which] have strong ties to the SMB and SOHO consumer space," added Schulz.

As the largest storage management vendor, EMC is providing substantial sales and marketing resources to its Iomega division, observed Rob Enderle, principal analyst at the Enderle Group

"It is marketing that drives products into markets, and the consumer market is particularly sensitive to marketing. Bringing a number of the EMC properties (Iomega, Retrospect, and Mozy) to together into a marketing bundle is the kind of thing that made Microsoft Office dominant in its market and should work [for EMC] where if execution is sharp."