The IBM System Storage SAN Volume Controller (SVC) software is designed to help improve storage utilization rates, energy efficiency, administrator productivity, availability, and scalability of critical applications. It can help improve the flexibility and responsiveness of IT infrastructures by creating consolidated, virtual pools of information.

Today, as information continues to grow, SMBs are looking to control costs while also responding to the changing business environment. The new IBM System Storage SAN Volume Controller (SVC) Entry Edition helps SMBs manage that growth and improve the return on their storage investments while also helping simplify operations. SVC Entry Edition is built on more affordable hardware intended specifically to run the new SVC Entry Edition software which delivers the same rich functional capabilities as the regular SVC software. As a result, IBM Business Partners already familiar with SVC will immediately be ready to support clients using SVC Entry Edition. SVC Entry Edition is licensed by the number of disk drives virtualized rather than by terabyte to make it more accessible and affordable. With this new type of licensing, IBM Business Partners can easily package new disk storage and SVC together to deliver complete storage solutions to clients.

"Just like enterprise clients, small to medium sized clients must deal with exploding volumes of data that must be stored. With SVC Entry Edition, clients can keep control of storage costs to improve storage utilization, which can help reduce energy consumption for a greener data center," said Jorge Quintero, President, QCM Technologies, Inc. "By offering a more affordable entry price point, QCM Technologies can help meet the demand that our clients have to get the most out of their information infrastructures."

"IBM is dedicated to helping SMB clients improve their information infrastructures through powerful virtualization technology," said Andy Slater, Chief Operating Officer, Tectrade. "With SVC Entry Edition, IBM is enabling Business Partners like Tectrade to address SMB client needs with easy to acquire, competitively priced systems thereby improving the end-to-end mid-market size client experience."

"IBM is committed to delivering the storage offerings and the reseller eco system to help SMB clients satisfy their business needs," said Barry Rudolph, Vice President, IBM System Storage. "We have been the leader in storage virtualization since SVC was introduced five years ago, and by incorporating a more accessible and affordable product through our IBM Business Partners we are giving clients what they have been asking for -- a way to incorporate green and efficient technologies into their information infrastructures to manage the data center crisis of today."