Veritas Software Corp. of Mountain View, Calif., and Quantum Corp. of San Jose, Calif., have joined forces to bundle Veritas' Backup Exec QuickStart Edition backup and restore software with Quantum's tape autoloaders and DDS/DAT (Digital Data Storage/digital audiotape)-based, DLT (digital linear tape)-based and LT-based stand-alone tape drives. The resulting solution, architected to work with one server, is aimed at the small- and midsize-business marketplace.

Although resellers certainly can purchase the Backup Exec and Quantum hardware separately for their SMB customers, this version of Backup Exec—the QuickStart Edition—is only available to resellers in a bundled form at no additional cost, said Paul Zeiter, director of the Americas channel sales for Quantum.

"We believe there is a value and a need in the SMB space, and in small remote locations or branch offices, to have a solution that cures a pain point for them," he said.

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"These organizations don't usually have an IT person, and they usually aren't that familiar with the technology. They may even be using native operating systems to do their backups and aren't familiar with Veritas. This steps them into a fully tested, fully supported solution," Zeiter said.

Ease of use was one of the major focuses of creating a bundled solution for the SMB market, said Glenn Groshans, director of product marketing in Veritas Software's data management group.

"It's already installed on the device, so right out of the box customers can begin backing up their data," he said. Groshans noted that QuickStart has all of the functionality of the standard Backup Exec product but is designed for a single server, so users can't add additional agents and options.

While the benefit to SMB customers is clear, the benefit to resellers is just as clear, Zeiter said.

"At the distribution level, there is real value to having a single SKU," he said. "It makes selling simple."

The comfort level of having two recognized brands working together also may help resellers feel particularly comfortable that they won't run into problems in the field, said Janet Waxman, vice president for hardware channels and alliances at IDC Corp. of Framingham, Mass.

"And it's a huge upsell opportunity for them to start increasing their software expertise and start selling more Veritas software," Waxman said.

But perhaps most importantly, the bundled solution may help resellers gain a much-needed foothold in the SMB space, Zeiter said.

"From the entry level, once they have a footprint with the customer, they have the opportunity to grow with that customer on the hardware side," he said. "There is annuity business in media on the automation side and barcode labels and barcode readers being added into a loader, as an example. As the customer's needs grow, the reseller can scale up with this solution."