Langchao Group, one of the biggest server vendors in China, formed a strategic alliance with US storage giant EMC Tuesday in Beijing to tap the middle-tier market, China Daily said Wednesday.

"We need especially to have this development in the middle reaches of the market," said Gary Jackson, vice-president of business alliance with EMC's Asia Pacific and Japan operation.

The deal permits EMC to authorize Langchao to produce the whole family of its CLARiiON storage product family, mainly targeted at small and medium-sized enterprises, with the Langchao brand.

EMG will share revenues from the sales of the CLARiiON with the Chinese firm as well as the latter's 100 channel partners who will distribute its products.

The companies will also train more than 1,000 sales and service staff and hold roadshows in more than 30 Chinese cities.

Hitachi Data System (HDS), which claims to be the biggest high-end storage product maker in the world, last month formed an alliance with the biggest Chinese computer maker Lenovoto to strengthen their presence in the small and medium-sized enterprise market.

"The partnership with Lenovo will enable us to enter the storage-oriented server market," said Martin Darling, senior director of channels for Asia Pacific and America with HDS.

The Thunder 9500V product of HDS for small and medium-sized enterprises will bear both brands of Lenovo and HDS in China.

Lenovo will also develop 50 professional channel partners in China country and the two companies will train 200 storage professionals for their venture.

They will also set up a support and service center in Beijing and open solutions laboratories in Beijing, Shanghai and Shenzhen.

US storage chipmaker LSI Logic has also tried to find domestic partners to enter the arena.

Hao Jianqing, vice-president of the domestic market research institute CCID Consulting, said that with fast-increasing demands from small and medium-sized enterprises for servers and storage products, co-operation between these two kinds of companies is becoming a trend in the market.

He said at a China Server and Storage Technology Seminar that the small and medium-sized enterprise storage market will grow at an annual average of 21.3 percent from 2004 to 2008, while the growth rate for large enterprises is forecast to be 13.8 percent.

He believed domestic server makers, with their advantages in winning orders from government, education, and small and medium businesses and in distribution channels, have become a good choice for international storage giants.
  
(China Daily June 16, 2004)