nasba &laquo; WordPress.com Tag Feed http://wordpress.com/tag/nasba/ Feed of posts on WordPress.com tagged "nasba" Sat, 11 Oct 2008 01:41:57 +0000 http://wordpress.com/tags/ en <![CDATA[Removable solutions from CRU Dataport]]> http://storageeffect.com/2007/11/15/removable-solutions-from-cru-dataport/ Thu, 15 Nov 2007 14:40:01 +0000 Pete Steege http://storageeffect.com/2007/11/15/removable-solutions-from-cru-dataport/ Removable storage is easy to integrate for a profitable recurring revenue stream

I spoke with Randal Barber and Dan Bovee from CRU Dataport today.  Their removable storage solutions are an innovative way to protect and manage business or institutional data.

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Randal is President, Dan is Director of Business Development.  CRU Dataport acquired StorCase, by the way, in case you're familiar with the Data Express product.  I met with them at the NASBA conference in Baltimore. 

Examples of killer solutions with these products: mobile surveillance (think police cars), schools and colleges where each student has a removable disk instead of a dedicated PC, accountants that want to put the data on their PC in a safe every night.

Cool stuff, with a lucrative annuity revenue stream.  One school district buys tens of thousands of drive cartridges every quarter!

Seagate and CRU are working together on several applications, including some with our EE25 "extreme environment" drive.

What are you doing with removable drives?

]]> <![CDATA[What's up at the NASBA Services, Security and Storage event]]> http://storageeffect.com/2007/11/15/whats-up-at-the-nasba-services-security-and-storage-event/ Thu, 15 Nov 2007 02:06:54 +0000 Pete Steege http://storageeffect.com/2007/11/15/whats-up-at-the-nasba-services-security-and-storage-event/ Managed services, thin clients, and enterprise SATA as a PC differentiator

There's a colorful group of small to medium-sized system builders here in Baltimore for the North American System Builder (NASBA) conference.  I love attending these events because they are informal and intimate - a chance to interact one-on-one and in a group setting with about 50 system builders. 

Tonight's takeaways:

  • Managed services is taking off, with about half of the attendees at least playing with it. 
  • A minority of the 'system builders' here build systems.  They are leading with support or service, then following up with hardware from wherever to fulfill. 
  • Stan Williamson from The Blencoe Group says they are succeeding tremendously with thin client solutions in business accounts with 25 seats or less.
  • Gordon Schroyer of MTPC in Laramie, Wyoming is using Barracuda ES drives in all of his custom PCs for $10 extra, and marketing his PCs as using "100% server-quality drives", as one way to get to his profitable margin threshold.  Below that hurdle, he resells HP systems. 
  • Lots of pain from the drive shortage in the market. Our customers are frustrated - so am I!  Hard to see loyal customers have to turn to other sources.  No sign of supply catching up with demand any time soon. 
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