{"id":85,"date":"2005-06-15T20:21:00","date_gmt":"2005-06-15T20:21:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.zerowait.com\/?p=85"},"modified":"2005-06-15T20:21:00","modified_gmt":"2005-06-15T20:21:00","slug":"85","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.zerowait.com\/index.php\/2005\/06\/15\/85\/","title":{"rendered":""},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\";font-family:arial;font-size:100%;\"  >It looks like there might finally be some price competition coming to the enterprise storage market thanks to competitive market forces and it should help NetApp&#8217;s customers. <\/span><span style=\";font-family:arial;font-size:100%;\" class=\"text\"  ><span style=\"font-weight: bold;\"> <\/span>I don&#8217;t think I have ever seen a more fragmented product marketing strategy by one company. <\/span><span style=\"font-size:100%;\"><\/p>\n<p><\/span><span style=\";font-family:arial;font-size:100%;\"  >Over the last few weeks we have seen some very interesting comments from NetApp on their pricing and their marketing strategy. <a href=\"http:\/\/www.forbes.com\/technology\/enterprisetech\/2005\/06\/02\/cz_qh_0602pillar.html\">First there was Dave Hitz saying NetApp will lower prices to gain market share <\/a><\/span><span style=\"font-size:100%;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.forbes.com\/technology\/enterprisetech\/2005\/06\/02\/cz_qh_0602pillar.html\" style=\"font-family: arial;\"> &#8220;We have a single software system, and we can cut our prices to gain market share,&#8221; he says. <\/a><\/p>\n<p><\/span><span style=\";font-family:arial;font-size:100%;\"  >According to NetApp&#8217;s  Leonard Iventosch <a href=\"http:\/\/www.crn.com\/sections\/breakingnews\/dailyarchives.jhtml?articleId=164302272\"> <\/a><\/span><span style=\";font-family:arial,helvetica;font-size:100%;\"  ><a href=\"http:\/\/www.crn.com\/sections\/breakingnews\/dailyarchives.jhtml?articleId=164302272\">&#8220;Before, we dialed for dollars, set up appointments and sent the lead to the partner,&#8221; <\/a>he said. <\/span><span style=\";font-family:arial,helvetica;font-size:100%;\"  > &#8220;Now we will get the lead, follow up with the customer and the channel partner, and make sure the customer stays engaged.&#8221; So it looks like the customer will be able to negotiate price with the partner, but also start shopping with other NetApp sales channels. <\/span><span style=\";font-family:arial;font-size:100%;\" class=\"text\"  >Where will the<a href=\"http:\/\/www.eweek.com\/article2\/0,1759,1783250,00.asp\"> IBM OEM versions of the NetApp products fit into the pricing picture<\/a>? Will IBM sell their OEM versions for less than the NetApp channel and direct sales force? Will customers be able to get competitive bids for the same product from NetApp&#8217;s direct sales force and NetApp&#8217;s partner sales force, and IBM&#8217;s direct and channel sales force?<\/p>\n<p>How will Pillar Data affect the pricing picture  especially within the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.netapp.com\/case_studies\/oracle.html\">Oracle NAS storage Niche that NetApp values so highly?  <\/a><\/span><span style=\";font-family:arial,helvetica;font-size:100%;\"  >   And now there is competition from Larry Ellison&#8217;s Pillar Data  <\/span><span style=\";font-family:arial;font-size:100%;\" class=\"text\"  >&#8211;  \u201c<\/span><span style=\"font-size:100%;\"><a style=\"font-family: arial;\" href=\"http:\/\/www.byteandswitch.com\/document.asp?doc_id=75496&#038;WT.svl=news2_3\"><span class=\"text\"> $100,000 for 12 Tbytes: <\/span><\/a><\/span><span style=\";font-family:arial;font-size:100%;\" class=\"text\"  ><a href=\"http:\/\/www.byteandswitch.com\/document.asp?doc_id=75496&amp;WT.svl=news2_3\">This system seems to target a real sweet spot that\u2019s missed by other storage vendors. It\u2019s unusual for us to buy from a startup. But it\u2019s such a departure from the existing storage paradigm that it\u2019s worth it to take a leap.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n<p>It seems like there will be a lot of competition for NetApp&#8217;s sales in the next few months. <span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Savvy customers will get quotes from all of the different competing sales forces and take the lowest price, because the service and product will be identical.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>Competition is good for the customer, and the coming months look like a great opportunity to grow your storage while reducing your costs. There are several successful purchasing strategies that our customers have used over the years in negotiating with NetApp, but getting competitive prices is always the best.<\/p>\n<p><\/span><span style=\";font-family:arial,helvetica;font-size:85%;\"  ><span style=\"font-size:100%;\"><br \/><\/span> <\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/www.forbes.com\/technology\/enterprisetech\/2005\/06\/02\/cz_qh_0602pillar.html\"><span class=\"mainarttxt\">   <\/span><\/a><\/p>\n<div class=\"blogger-post-footer\"><img width='1' height='1' src='https:\/\/blogger.googleusercontent.com\/tracker\/11084229-111878330657574058?l=zerowait.blogspot.com' alt='' \/><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>It looks like there might finally be some price competition coming to the enterprise storage market thanks to competitive market forces and it should help NetApp&#8217;s customers. I don&#8217;t think I have ever seen a more fragmented product marketing strategy &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/blog.zerowait.com\/index.php\/2005\/06\/15\/85\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.zerowait.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.zerowait.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.zerowait.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.zerowait.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.zerowait.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=85"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blog.zerowait.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.zerowait.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=85"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.zerowait.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=85"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.zerowait.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=85"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}