Storage Technology Corp. (StorageTek) (NYSE: STK) has spun together two new storage management services that the company hopes will make customers believe StorageTek can provide more than just field technicians who know how to fix a busted tape automation library.
The first of StorageTek's new offerings is Enterprise Support Services, which provides first-line support for multivendor storage environments, including both software and hardware. The other is Remote Managed Storage, a 24/7 monitoring and problem resolution service, which is based on StorageTek's acquisition of the operations division of Storability Inc. last year (see StorageTek Buys Storability Assets).
StorageTek is able to broker back-end support agreements with other vendors, so it becomes a customer's proverbial "one throat to choke" -- or if all goes well, "one back to slap," says John LoPorto, VP of storage solutions at StorageTek [Ed. note: Or one nose to... oh, never mind.]
Companies StorageTek has worked with on this front include Hitachi Data Systems (HDS), IBM Tivoli, Legato Systems Inc. (Nasdaq: LGTO), Sun Microsystems Inc. (Nasdaq: SUNW), and Veritas Software Corp. (Nasdaq: VRTS), according to LoPorto.
"We've moving much more heavily into the software side," he says. "We're getting away from being just the guys with the screwdrivers."
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