Partnership offerings
In January storage systems supplier EMC announced the Ecosystem for ASPs service. This provides enterprises with flexible storage capacity and is offered in partnership with IBM, AT&T, Hewlett-Packard and Sun. The service is based upon EMC storage systems, with StorageNetworks acting as the SSP.
Disk systems vendor Hewlett-Packard is partnering with specialist Qwest Communications to offer storage paid for as needed. It has launched the Instant Capacity On Demand programme based around its XP256 SureStore E disk array. When an XP256 is sold, it is installed with as much disk capacity as the customer expects to use in that quarter. The deal then includes a capacity plan for the next few quarters. Every quarter, this can be modified, and paid for, as required.
There is little doubt that the pay-as-you-go model, coupled with the potential for instantly available capacity, has a future. The only question is whether enterprises will buy these services direct from SSPs or via some more market-oriented service provider, such as an ASP or value-added reseller.
