Intransa launches new iSCSI storage product and new partner programs 12 March, 2007 By Chris Talbot

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With new funding and a new management team, Intransa has kicked off its StorPartner program, as well as several sub-programs related to it, but the company is also expanding beyond the traditional 1GbE iSCSI-based storage product that it has targeted at the upper echelons of the SMB market. The new StorStac product is a 2GbE iSCSI-based storage product aimed at the mid-market, and the company's upcoming 10GbE storage product will be aimed at an even higher level of the market.

"Overall we really positioned the company completely new," said Jeff Whitney, vice president of marketing at Intransa.

The company was originally spun out of 3Com in 2001 and launched its 1GbE product in 2003. According to Whitney, who joined the company in November 2006, iSCSI was really only being adopted by SMBs at the time, and Intransa's products were aimed too high in the market.

With a recent change in the way Intransa goes to market, the company is expanding its products while also expanding its presence in the channel. A mixed direct/channel go-to-market model has been replaced with a 100 per cent channel model.

"Our overall objective is to drive all of our revenue through the channel and not have any direct sales," Whitney said.

The company rolled out the new StorPartner program in mid-February to existing U.S. partners. Whitney said the partners Intransa were working with in Canada were fairly small; the company chose not to renew relations with them. Intransa is currently looking for new partners in Canada while at the same time continuing to expand the number of partners it has in the U.S.

There is a concern about flooding the market with channel partners and therefore creating too many channel conflicts, so Intransa is being very picky about which channel resellers and systems integrators it works with, Whitney said.

"I'm being very selective of the partners that I sign up for the program," he said.

Sub-programs within the StorPartner program including StorAcademy, which provides free technical training to partners, as well as sales and marketing tools; StorBulletin, which keeps partners informed on the latest technical information and promotions; StorPortal, the company's channel partner portal, which is currently been revamped and will be a one-stop-shop for Intransa partners; StorSupport, which incents partners to sell additional years of service or upsell customers from standard support service; StorDemo, which enables partners to purchase up to two demo systems a quarter and resell them after 90 days; StorReg, which offers partners extra discounts for registering deals; and StorStart, which offers sales support to partners.

Additionally, the company has launched the StorAlliance program, which focuses on the technical partnerships Intransa has in the background, Whitney said.

"Many of my partners are going to be storage guys, but many are going to be new markets, so this can't be complicated -- and that's what this is all about," Whitney said.

With the company's new StorStac 2GbE product, it has "effectively doubled the bandwidth" of the product launched in 2003, and the upcoming 10GbE product will have even more processing power, Whitney said.

While the high end of the SMB is the company's entry-point, the 2GbE and 10GbE products are aimed at a slightly different market -- companies in need of server-based applications that have traditionally run on fibre channel.

"Our play is only a small portion of that -- maybe eight to 10 per cent of that market," Whitney said.

Intransa's iSCSI-based products are lower cost than fibre channel products, and while it doesn't have all the bells and whistles of fibre channel, it still competes with fibre channel in terms of speed in basic configurations, Whitney said.

"Our real prize for us is with our 2GbE and our 10GbE technology is what we think of as network-based applications," he continued.

The company's fastest growing markets are in this network-based applications area, which included video on demand, IPTV and video surveillance. However, the biggest markets for those areas are overseas. Video on demand and IPTV plays in North America will likely be through OEMs than the channel, so there will be limited opportunities for Intransa's channel partners in those areas in Canada and the U.S.

Where North American channel partners will find their biggest opportunities with Intransa products are in remote imaging, distance learning, remote medical systems, medical imaging systems and document imaging systems, Whitney said.

"We're really lucky because there are no traditional players in this market," Whitney said.