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Storage Fusion Drives Professional Services

Specializing in storage analytics, UK-based Storage Fusion is reaching out to the broader channel with a new flat-rate pricing model for its SRA (Storage Resource Analysis) service. Based on a SaaS (Software as a Service) platform, the latest release of SRA combines all of the company’s analytic modules into a single unified service with a […]

Written By

Steve Wexler

Nov 2, 2009

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Specializing in storage analytics, UK-based Storage Fusion is reaching
out to the broader channel with a new flat-rate pricing model for its SRA
(Storage Resource Analysis) service. Based on a SaaS (Software as a Service)
platform, the latest release of SRA combines all of the company’s analytic
modules into a single unified service with a monthly subscription fee. This makes the service much more accessible
than the existing pricing model which is based on the amount of disk storage
capacity being analyzed.

Technically a one-year-old start up, the company has been
delivering SRA since January, and started signing up global resellers to host
the software in August, said Graham Woods, managing director. "We’re
exploiting the SaaS model to be very disruptive in the marketplace. We’ve had
some fantastic traction in the market since August, to the point where we’re
now profitable and cash-generative."

The
technology behind SRA represented a small segment of Itheon, a software
developer acquired by Xploite plc, an investment company, in 2007. It was subsequently spun off as Storage
Fusion. The new release includes a comprehensive set of analytics that
report on system utilization, capacity allocation and disk tiering based on
workgroup classifications. It also includes the recently-announced
environmental module that calculates power consumption of storage hardware down
to individual disk drives.

Initial customers were primarily consulting companies who
used the tools to help customers enhance and accelerate their data storage
assets, said Colin Horne, sales manager. He said there are a number of
alternative solutions out there, but that they’re either proprietary, complex
and/or expensive. "The (competition’s) heterogeneity tends to be pretty
slim across platforms (and) they tend to be a big clumsy."

Horne said customers tend to love Storage Fusion’s SaaS
model because there is no agent software required, no spending on CapEx, and storage
analytics can be delivered in the same day requested. He said channel partners
would typically spend about $1,600 per month/per customer for a subscription
which would provide one analysis per month. According to the company, most
organizations see a full return on their yearly investment with the first
month’s analysis. Typically customers can recover 10-15 percent of their
storage assets.

The service enables channel partners to analyze their
customers’ storage environments and provide specific recommendations on how to
optimize their storage and get the best ban for their buck, said Horne.
"This is driving our channel partners’ professional service
revenues."

The company is looking for additional coverage in the U.S.
and is considering hooking up with a distributor to capture niche markets.

Storage Fusion Drives Professional Services

Steve Wexler

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