Quantum To Unveil Online Configurator For Arrays, Libraries

Among the products that can be configured and ordered via the new system is the new PX720 enterprise-class tape automation library, called Mako, which was unveiled this Monday.

The company's new Quantum Marketplace allows its Quantum Academy channel partners to configure arrays, place orders and route the shipments, said Jim Simon, director of channel marketing. "We want to make our business as easy as working with Amazon," he said.

Using Marketplace, partners can request their normal discounts and see any special pricing to which they are entitled, Simon said. Marketplace is also linked to distributors, which can pass the correct price to solution providers, he said.

Solution providers first enter Marketplace via a set of questions aimed at helping determine the best product for their customer's purpose, Simon said.

For instance, Marketplace asks questions about how often full and secondary backups are done, how much of a backup window is available, the amount of data to be backed up, how that data is expected to grow and how long data must be kept. Recommendations are then made on required interface, type and number of drives, and number of slots.

While Quantum's Enterprise Solutions Partners are allowed to buy the products directly from Quantum, most of its solution providers buy through a distributor, which can be specified during the ordering process, Simon said. For such partners, once the configuration process is complete, the price of the system is passed to the distributor, not the solution provider.

Quantum does not use a closed distribution model, Simon said. "But top partners get an extra discount if they work with specific distributors," he said.

Marketplace is currently not available for end users who wish to configure systems, but may be opened to them some day, Simon said.