Compaq Beefs Up Managed Storage Services, Other Services To Come

Compaq Computer

The company is expected to reveal next week it is getting help from Storability, a Southborough, Mass.-based developer of software and technology that enables companies to manage storage as a service.

Compaq Global Services currently manages customers' on-site storage infrastructures, but such remote management is limited to Compaq storage products, said Ray Wilkes, director of the organization.

By using technology provided by Storability, Compaq will be able to manage clients' heterogeneous storage environments, including EMC's Symmetrix and Clariion arrays as well as storage subsystems from Hitachi Data Systems, Wilkes said.

Storability expects revenue from the Compaq deal to be between $3 million and $5 million over the next 18 months, said Kirby Wadsworth, vice president of marketing for the storage service developer.

Compaq will use Storability's AssuredStorage Management System, an application that provides a dedicated storage services delivery platform, as part of the Computing on Demand IT services initiative Compaq unveiled last July, Wadsworth said. "We're not at the fringes of their business, but right at the core," he said.

While Wilkes said the managed storage initiative is part of an overall boost in the company's managed services business, he declined to discuss changes in the other services.

Compaq Global Services is currently a direct play for the vendor, but Wilkes said the organization is looking at ways to get its channel partners involved. "Our target market is the distributed enterprise," he said. "We always want to consider our partners. But we have no specific programs as to how the channel plays to our managed services offering."

Compaq is the latest in a string of service providers that have turned to Storability to offer storage as a service. Other recent providers include Qwest Communications International and CT Communications.