IBM launches servers for small businesses

IBM has 34% market share in the segment

IBM India has unveiled new range of X100 servers for the small and medium business (SMB) sector.

"The new X100 servers are entry level servers targeting the $52 million SMB market," said Anil Sethi, country manager (xSeries & intellistation), IBM India.

Enjoying leadership for the last six quarters in the server sector, IBM, as per an IDC report, has 34 per cent market share in the segment.

"The company is looking at growing this market share and with this new range we have the cheapest available server range in the market. The X100 series is available in Celeron as well as Intel Pentium IV processors, with a Microsoft 2003 operating system and ranges from Rs 30,000 - Rs 44,000," said Sethi.

Speaking about the pricing and focus on the SMB market, Sethi said, "Our objective is to grow the server market in India by bringing in affordable technology." The X100 server series replaces the companies previous X200 series and "offers better capacity, architecture and capacity at a lower price."

The company is projecting "Sales of 1,500 units in the coming month for the new servers," said Sethi.

"SMBs contribute towards 40 per cent of our overall revenues and is a market with high potential growing at 20-25 per cent as against the overall server market growing at 10 per cent," he added.

He Said the company had spent Rs 2.5 crore in advertising and promotion of the range and covered entire gamut of players from distributors, tier II partners to customers in the campaign.

The company is looking at the metros and tier II cities such as Pune, Chandigarh, Ahmedabad, Bhopal, Lucknow, Indore and Hyderabad to meet its numbers.

"IBM currently has 500 channel partners in India and we plan to increase our network to have a 1,000 partners over the next year," added Sethi.