Nexsan VARs are taking advantage of the vendor's extension of its 20/20 trade-in plan to help customers upgrade aging storage products.  

The 20/20 program offers VARs a 45 percent discount off the MSRP of Nexan's ATABoy and ATABeast products when legacy Nexsan products are traded in, according to a Nexsan representative.  The plan launched in North America in December 2007 and was slated to run for three months.  However, it has proved so successful it has been extended until the end of March, and the vendor is also extending the program to European VARs.   

The large discounts mean that VARs can then pass the savings on to their customers, said Doug Cole, a partner with solution provider LH Computer Services. Cole said his company was taking advantage of the program and that of LH's 20 to 30 clients running older Nexsan products. He estimates that about 12 have used the trade-in program to upgrade to newer Nexsan hardware.  

The program is aimed at Nexsan legacy customers that want or need a refresh on hardware that's no longer under warranty and not supported, Cole said.  "They're going to have to replace the box eventually—why not now with the special pricing?" Cole said.  He added that Nexsan VARs also benefited, since customers had better incentives to continue with Nexsan products rather than replace their hardware with another vendor's products and maybe change VARs in the process.

"[Current customers] get a better price than if they were a new Nexsan customer—because, of course, they have to have been a previous Nexsan customer to trade in their old equipment," Cole said.  

Ashby Lincoln, CEO of VeriStor, a larger Nexsan partner, expressed relief that the program had been extended.  Of VeriStor's 50 or so customers, Lincoln said he has had about six take advantage of the trade-in offer so far.   

"Frankly, though, there were customers we weren't able to get to with this deal, so we are glad we now have the chance to go meet with them," Lincoln said.  He added that this week he'd contacted about 25 more customers and was hopeful that they'd take advantage of the program.  

Lincoln said the program made sense not only for VARs and their customers but for Nexsan.  "It makes sense for the manufacturer to try to get those old ATA drives that aren't manufactured anymore, aren't under warranty and aren't supported off the market," Lincoln said, if for no other reason than they can be used for spares for customers that don't or can't upgrade to newer technology.