Date:13/05/2005 URL: http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/2005/05/13/stories/2005051303450900.htm

Back Hitachi, Acer join hands to tap Asia-Pacific market

Our Bureau

Mr Bruce Symes (left), Vice-President, Sales, Asia, Hitachi Data Systems, and Mr Harish Kohli, General Manager, Sales and Marketing, Acer India (Pvt) Ltd, at a press conference in Bangalore on Thursday. - - G. R. N. Somashekar

Bangalore , May 12

HITACHI Data System (HDS) and Acer on Thursday announced a joint marketing plan for the Asia-Pacific market, including India.

As part of the initiative, Acer will undertake marketing, sale and support for Hitachi Thunder 9500 V series modular storage systems in addition to third-party products, as part of a total storage area network solution.

Mr Bruce Symes, Vice-President, HDS, said Acer joins Hitachi's TrueNorth channels partner programme in a three-year agreement for the Asia-Pacific market in the elite tier known as regional platinum solutions partner. "The pact will accelerate Acer's position in the entry to mid-level SAN market and give Hitachi Data a strong entry into the market that prefers storage attached PC servers," he added.

Mr Symes said: "the HDS-Acer partnership gives the two companies significant competitive advantage while their complementary skills provide customers better choice in SAN solutions. We see tremendous opportunity for growth within the same marketplace as more and enterprise applications become available as on the Windows operating system, including e-mail, is a ubiquitous as office stationery".

Mr Harish Kohli, General Manager (Sales and Marketing), Enterprise product Group, Acer India, said the company would be targeting segments such as the banking, finance and insurance, public sector units and telecom companies through this initiative.