Tarsus makes HP's EVA more viable for South African enterprises

1 July 2008

With corporate governance guidelines and legislation driving the need for enterprises to invest in larger and more sophisticated storage solutions, there's been a marked growth in the interest that IT departments are showing in next-generation storage solutions from an array of leading vendors.

HP's EVA solution is just one of the storage systems garnering interest from the enterprise sector - primarily because it allows IT departments to scale storage capacity as their needs dictate, and slice and dice that capacity almost endlessly.

"But, issues including the three-week delivery time frame of the EVA range and the fact that it arrives bare-bones, needs to be configured and can only be procured through tier one resellers, have hampered its progress in the local market," says Greg Pothitos, HP server and storage product manager at Tarsus Technologies.

These factors often see the EVA being removed from the picture. "However, we've set out to change that scenario," he says. For starters, Tarsus has begun carrying a comprehensive range of EVA stock, complete with every possible option, add-on and upgrade.

"This has ensured that regardless of the unique configuration that the customer wants, the channel is able to deliver on their needs both today, and further down the usage cycle when upgrades are required," he says.

Secondly, Pothitos says Tarsus has also upskilled its configuration centre staff so that resellers will no longer be tasked with pre-configuring the system.

"By pre-configuring and burning-in systems prior to their deployment in the field, we cut down on the time resellers have to spend on these tasks - all resellers see this service as a real bonus," he adds.

While the EVA is only available to resellers that have achieved tier one status, buying the solution from Tarsus gives them a substantial improvement in the turnaround time they are able to offer their customers.

Pothitos says Tarsus' efforts are going a long way towards making the EVA range a truly viable set of solutions for the South African market.

"In our opinion, we've removed all of the obstacles that stand in the way of the EVA achieving significant success in South Africa - the rest is up to the channel," he concludes.