StorMagic extends its ecosystem of large server vendor partners with HPE, although this one, unlike others with Lenovo, Dell and Cisco, is a technology integration rather than a Go-to-Market mechanism.
Bruce Kornfeld, CMO and GM of the Americas at StorMagic
Edge-focused hyperconverged infrastructure [HCI] vendor StorMagic has announced a new partnership with HPE. The new relationship sees StorMagic join HPE’s Partner Ready for Technology Partner Program as a Silver tier member. It also sees the announcement of a validated integration between StorMagic’s virtual SvSAN software and HPE DL325 and DL360 ProLiant Gen10 rack servers.
The HPE relationship is part of a focused strategy by StorMagic to build very deep relationships with the tier one server companies. While these companies typically have HCI products of their own, they are not focused around the same use cases. StorMagic specializes in small two-server edge deployments, although they are not just an SMB play, with some of their customers being quite large. Earlier this year, StorMagic supplemented their existing partnerships with Lenovo and Cisco with a new one with Dell EMC. The addition of the HPE relationship continues that strategy.
“We are expanding our presence in the market by partnering with these larger vendors that also have solutions for edge computing, which is where we are focused,” said Bruce Kornfeld, CMO and GM of the Americas at StorMagic.
The technology integration formally announced is with the HPE DL325 and DL360 ProLiant Gen10 rack servers, and includes testing of SvSAN with both VMware vSphere and Microsoft Hyper-V hypervisors.
“Our software is designed as a very lightweight stack that runs as a virtual machine on top of almost any hypervisor,” Kornfeld said. “We run on top of VMware, Microsoft and KVM. Server hardware certifications aren’t required for us. We tested our software with two of the HPE servers. That shows the world that we are fully validated on HPE hardware. While we have announced only the integrations with the two, the nature of our software means that we will integrate with any x86-based HPE server.”
The other part of the announcement is the strategic relationship itself, and the fact that StorMagic has joined the HPE’s Partner Ready for Technology Partner Program as a silver partner in two categories: servers, and integrated systems. The HPE relationship is different from the Lenovo, Cisco and Dell EMC ones, however. All of those partnerships have Go-to-Market components, with StorMagic being on the price lists of the larger server vendors. StorMagic’s HPE partnership does not have this component, and while the HPE Complete program exists as a Go-to-Market mechanism for HPE to sell third-party solutions, StorMagic is not in that program.
“What we are announcing with HPE is the fact that we have been accepted into the HPE Partner program,” Kornfeld said. “This is a technology integration, not a reselling agreement. What it does for StorMagic is help us expand our portfolio of major server vendors with whom our customers can integrate with confidence. It also gives channel partners confidence that building solutions with StorMagic and HPE makes sense.”
Kornfeld said that while the partnership with HPE is different from the other server vendors, all the partnerships are different from each other.
“Each partnership that we have with these multi-billion dollar server providers is different,” Kornfeld said. “Lenovo doesn’t have a storage division nor are they interested in building one. So they made it very easy for us to join their configurator and become part of their ecosystem. On the Dell side, they have every storage product you can imagine. We are on their list because it’s a convenience for the channel. It’s about helping channel partners bundle us to fit specific use cases.”
Kornfield said that they view the HPE relationship as the first stage in their partnership.
“HPE saw a need to add us, because StorMagic brings lightweight hyperconvergence to the edge with the industry’s lowest cost virtual SAN,” he said. “This is a good first step in our relationship with HPE. It is about enabling our joint channel partners.”
That HPE partner presence is very significant for StorMagic.
“The vast majority of our partners are HPE partners,” Kornfeld stressed. “We have announced relationships with large partners like SHI and Bechtle in Europe that have strong HPE relationships.”
StorMagic also just announced at VMworld Europe their ‘Edge in a Box’ solution in partnership with Schneider Electric. Aimed at both edge and small data centre onsite applications, ‘Edge in a Box’ includes Schneider Electric’s 6U Wall Mount EcoStruxure Micro Data Center, any two x86 servers and StorMagic SvSAN software for less than $12,000.
