Server-Class Disk Drives
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Nobody beats Seagate when it comes to server-class
in the channel. Nobody.
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The Scotts Valley, Calif."based vendor swept first place in all 15 technical and channel program criteria to earn the overall Channel Champions title.
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On the technical criteria, Seagate's satisfaction rating of 87.7 came in a particularly wide 7.7 points ahead of Hitachi and Maxtor and 11.1 points ahead of Fujitsu.
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"I like the fact that they have the high-capacity drives and they're taking the initiative to design drives for mission-critical applications, especially in
and SAN," said Samuel Sanchez, vice president of marketing at Coastline Micro,
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a system builder in Irvine, Calif. "They design drives like the NL35 to be able to handle 24x7 read-write applications. The drives are becoming more sophisticated, more robust."
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On channel program criteria, Seagate pulled 3.1 points ahead of runner-up Hitachi. The company's strength here was a 7.2-point lead in the area of vendor support.
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"They do all the things you think every [vendor] partner should do but doesn't," said Andy Pratt, president and CEO of Unique Digital, a Houston solution provider. "They may not even be extraordinary things, but they do the common-sense things and they do them well. You know they're there.
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He said Seagate once helped Unique Digital track down a large quantity of product from a variety of distribution sources to finish a big project. "They are very helpful at crunch time," he said. "They do their best to help you out."
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Sanchez said Seagate has great channel programs, back-end rebates and support. "I have access to field-sales application engineers," he said. "If anything goes wrong, if I need a
upgrade or a drive to be looked at, they are there."
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In the past year, Seagate introduced channel enhancements such as immediate access to the company's support staff without having to sit in a queue, said Desa Zraick, senior director of global channel programs and operations at Seagate.
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"We put an organization in place, both corporate and in the field, that does not take the channel for granted," Zraick said.
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