partner community

A Week at Insight in Macau, China

February 22, 2012

Peter Eicher

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Senior Product Specialist, Data Protection

I’ve been spending the week at the NetApp Insight event  in Macau, China, talking to a host of NetApp partners and sales engineers from all over the Asia-Pacific region about the NetApp Syncsort Integrated Backup (NSB) solution.

While NSB was launched in 2010, Syncsort has only recently begun to deliver the solution in the region via our distribution partner, Distribution Central.  Based on the conversations I’ve been having, it’s not a moment too soon!

I spoke to dozens of folks yesterday, and over and over it’s the same theme. Users need better data protection solutions  and the partner community here is excited about how NSB can take NetApp’s world-class data protection features (Snapshots, FlexClone, SnapMirror) and extend them into non-NetApp storage environments.

At one point during last night’s cocktail reception, I spoke to four Australian NetApp sales engineers in a row and they all confirmed that they are currently working on opportunities to solve customer problems with NSB. They were all eager to learn more about the solution’s unique value proposition and how it works!

When I share information about how NSB has helped take an 18-hour backup window and reduce it to 45 minutes or less, people’s eyes really light up. The problem is real, and folks here are ready to take NSB out to their users in a big way.

Good thing too, because it was not easy to get here.  Just for fun, here’s the journey I took to get to the event:

* Two hour flight from New York to Detroit
* Four hour layover in Detroit
* 16 hour flight to Hong Kong (I watched three movies and we weren’t even close to arriving!)
* 30 minute cab ride from Hong Kong airport to the Macau ferry terminal
* One hour ferry ride, Hong Kong to Macau
* 20 minute shuttle bus from ferry terminal to hotel

On Friday, I get to do it all over again only this time in reverse. While the travel is not easy, the trip and the great conversations here at Insight have been well worth it!

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Leveraging Distribution in EMEA

May 13, 2011

Peter Eicher

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Senior Product Specialist, Data Protection

I’ve been spending the week in Frankfurt, Germany, participating in a sales and systems engineer training for the Syncsort EMEA team.  We’re ramping up NSB quickly in the EMEA market now that we’ve announced distribution partnerships with Avnet and ALTIMATE.  Other partnerships will be signed too, so stay tuned.

As with NSB in the North American market, the technology has been around for many years and we have many customers in the region using the combination of Syncsort software and NetApp storage.  The NSB solution branding makes it easier for partners to deliver the offering and for customers to purchase it, and behind the scenes a joint NetApp/Syncsort support agreement ensures smooth sailing for support issues.

Meanwhile, members of the Syncsort team enjoyed a nice beer garden dinner Wednesday night, complete with lots of fresh asparagus, which is currently in season.  Mixed in with all the other discussion was a vigorous debate over the use of the word “leverage,” which our resident UK language expert and professional services guru Phil Kilburn insisted should not be used as a substitute for “use.”  I admit to being guilty of this all the time, as in sentences such as “NSB leverages NetApp snapshot technology for rapid recovery of data.” 

Phil’s correct about the usage, but “leverage” has become commonly accepted business jargon, like everything from “action item” to “zero sum,” words we use every day without thinking about how silly they might be.

Well, here in EMEA, our NSB partner community will now be able to – pardon me, Phil! – leverage the highly value added services provided by Avnet and ALTIMATE to further their data protection lines of business and bring best-in-class data protection and recovery to their customers.  And that’s not a zero-sum situation for anyone!

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