Startups Seek Double-Team Plays

Nexsan and newcomer Reldata have become the latest dynamic duo in storage, with a deal that bundles Reldata's NAS and IP SAN gateway with Nexsan's SATA disk systems.

The two will announce next week their plan to co-market a bundle comprising the Reldata 9200 IP Storage Gateway and Nexsan's SATAboy array, priced at $36,500 for 7 Tbytes of storage.

It's all about safety and synergy in numbers, as privately held players seek to partner with other small vendors. Together, the thinking goes, smaller firms can offer product combinations that give them some ammunition to take on the larger vendors, in this case NAS leaders Network Appliance and EMC.

NAS gateway vendor ONStor is another example. ONStor put itself on the map with the help of partnerships with 3PAR, Compellent, and Xiotech, and with Nexsan for its smaller-capacity SATABlade system. (See Vendors Play Integration Duet and ONStor, Nexsan Deliver NAS.)

Reldata, formed 13 months ago by the merger of Reliable Data Technology and Germany-based Reldata Europe, began going the partner route earlier this month when it hooked up with Dot Hill. (See Reliable Data Technology, Reldata Merge and Dot Hill, Reldata Create Bundle.)