CHENNAI
SEPTEMBER 21, 2006

Chennai-based Sanat Technologies Pvt Ltd, a start-up company developing storage solutions such as NAS and IP-SAN-primarily for SMB market, is in the process of appointing channel partners across the country to market its solutions. Sanat, which recently made a soft launch of its NAS boxes in the market, has already tasted success with 18 installations in the last six-eight weeks, according to the company source. "Our storage solutions would be best-of-the-breed in the market. We are heavily depended on channels for our success," said VS Vasan, Founder-Director, Sanat Technologies.
Sanat is the first Indian company to join Intel global storage community program recently, which is worth mentioning here.

To start with, Sanat is offering NAS solutions in one and two terabit space, before scaling up to six terabit. “Unlike big storage vendors who just claim to offer special (customized) solutions for SMB market, we provide true SMB products at cheaper price coupled with best value (at par in technology with any brand). We will market our products across the industry segments,” he quoted. Sanat's NAS boxes are available from Rs 1.3 lakh to Rs 8 lakh. The company is also preparing to launch its IP-SAN solutions in the market, shortly.

According to Mike Wall, GM (Storage Group Marketing), Intel, "Innovative storage solutions, based on Intel storage technology, such as those from Sanat can significantly reduce the complexities associated with building a NAS or SAN environment."

He also added, "As a member of the Intel Storage Community, we share a common vision with Sanat Technologies of delivering affordable enterprise-class storage solutions for organizations of all sizes."

Sanat is looking for partners at three levels and are already in talks with big league system integrators in the country. “There has been a lot of interest from large SIs for our NAS product. At the second level, we are appointing SIs in every region, who will integrate our NAS product with their solution offering in the market. Finally, we are planning to rope in leading sub-distributors across the country, who are already into selling servers and other storage solutions from several leading brands,” said R Ram Kumar, Co-founder of Sanat and CEO of Gemini Communication Limited, who is driving these channel initiatives.

In the first phase, the company has identified eight cities (Ahmedabad, Bangalore, Chennai, Delhi, Hyderabad, Kolkata, Mumbai and Pune) to establish channel network and will be appointing three-four partners in every region. “By the end of this fiscal, we will be present in all the States of India with 50 channel partners addressing the market,” he informed. Sanat will engage the same channels to market its IP-SAN solution. “We will be a 100 percent channel company,” Kumar added.

The company is looking for a turnover of Rs 2 crore in the first nine months of operations (July-March, 2006) and projecting a revenue of Rs 8 crore in the next fiscal. IP-SAN will be a major component with 60 percent revenue contribution, during next year.

Sanat claims to offer NAS storage solution with advanced features like instant and scheduled back-up with compression, built-in auto back-up and other documented features available in it. It is a Linux-based product, which is completely customizable. Similarly, IP-SAN product is inter-operable with all popularly available iSCSI initiators in the industry today.

In the next stage, Sanat wants to take its storage solution to global markets. Initially, it will be targeting the Middle-East and South Asian markets, before expanding into other geographies. “We are confident about competing with global vendors like IBM, HP, Hitachi, EMC and NetAPP in the storage space, in the next two-three years,” added Vasan.

StorOS is the flagship firmware from Sanat Technologies.

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