Sun acquired Storagetek for US$4.1 billion middle of last year. With the addition of Storagetek, Sun is looking to leverage on its strength as a systems vendor that can provide all the pieces to a user's storage infrastructure, from hardware to software.
Raymond Siow, sales director for Sun's data management group covering the region including the Philippines, said Sun is also looking to rely on Storagetek's strength in the server-independent space.
Siow noted that Storagetek follows a "sort of an EMC" model, building storage solutions designed for either mainframe, Unix, and other server configurations. Prior to its merger with Sun, Storagetek had local clients including power firm Manila Electric Company (Meralco) and manufacturing giant San Miguel Corporation, said Siow.
"Our merger with Sun means more commitment to our clients in the Philippines rather than previously working through a single distributor," Siow said in an interview with reporters. "Our traditional markets have been telecoms and banks. We hope to take advantage of Sun's presence in other sectors like government."
Sun also hopes to tap into what Siow calls a "compliance market" of users looking for content management and archiving solutions to adhere to international regulations like Sarbanes-Oxley.
Storagetek sells mostly tape drives in the Philippines although it has been a long-time original equipment manufacturing (OEM) partner of Sun for some of the latters' storage hardware. After the merger, Siow is hoping more users in the Philippines will buy disk-based hardware that support heterogeneous systems while being able to serve from mid- to high-market segments.
Asked about his perception of the local market, Siow said, "Users (in the Philippines) are becoming more mature. The rationale behind every purchase of new solutions is not just to have a solution in place but if it helps generate revenue, directly or indirectly."
Sun is also gradually rebranding its entire storage strategy into the Storagetek brand. "It will be a product line similar to Solaris and Java," described Siow.