''We would discourage over-distribution by working with vertical-centric partners''

A relatively new entrant into the field of storage management software,
BakBone is making quiet but strong strides. Its APac MD Howard Weiss is
initiating tier-2 channel engagements across major cities, looking at a 100%
growth in BakBone's Indian business this year. He feel, this would be made
possible by selective-yet-focused partnerships that the company plans to enter
into.

What are the kind of solutions does BakBone offer?

BakBone is a storage management software company having offerings in data
archival, backup and restore. Founded in 2000,

we are an offshoot of AT&T Bell Labs and currently our products solutions
the data protection needs of a workgroup to an enterprise-wide kind of
environment.

NetVault is our flagship product which is an enterprise backup and restore
application. It is a highly modular solution and comes in four different
editions: Standard, Work Group, Data Center and Enterprise.

We also have what we call Application Plugin Modules (APM) for application
data protection. We carry a whole suite of APMs meant for database systems like
DB2, Informix, Lotus Notes, MS SQL, SAP etc. In fact we are the first vendor to
support Oracle 10G. We also have plugin modules for network attached storage
systems.

One of the key highlights of BakBone solutions is its broad support to Linux.
Our solutions are compatible with 15 various versions of Linux and operate
equally well in a heterogeneous environment.

Where does India fit in your global scheme of business?

In the APac region, though Japan holds a very strong position currently,
that market is slowly saturating. India, along with China, holds maximum
potential for growth in years to come.

We have been in the country for less than two years and in terms of growth,
we plan to grow by at least 100% over the next one year. Our marketshare in the
storage management software space stood at about 4% last year and we are
confident of doubling it in the current fiscal.

Our intent for the Indian market can also be gauged by the fact that we have
recently opened two offices in Bangalore and Mumbai.

What is your business model and what would be your go-to-market
strategy here?

BakBone Software is a 100% channel-driven company and we don't do direct
business. The same holds true for India as well. So far, we have been closing
working with some top-of-line partners like Apara, HCL and CMS.

We are currently in the process of expanding our tier-2 channel base with 25
and 30 SI partners across seven major cities. We are also in talks with some
national distributors and would be reaching a decision in this regard shortly.

We would also like to emphasize that our engagements will happen only with
key partners and we would keep our channel base small yet very strong. Our
efforts would be to discourage any intra-channel competition and we believe that
a small channel base will help us grow better.

How different would be your positioning from the strong competition
offered by much larger companies like CA or Veritas?

Our USP vis-à-vis the competition would largely arise from the fact that
while they have established huge partner bases, we will be extremely selective
about our channel engagements. The competition's channel today is faced with
grave concerns of over-distribution.

We would discourage such a practice by working more with vertical-centric
partners. This way, both BakBone and its partners, would be able to tap
opportunities in a focused and non-conflicting manner.

From a technology perspective, our positioning differs strongly from that of
the competition due to the breadth of heterogeneous support that our solutions
offer across various operating environments.

Unlike the competition, we don't have a CPU-based licensing fee and our
solutions start from those for single servers and can scale up to the
enterprise-level.

What kind of growth opportunities will BakBone offer to its partners?

In terms of skill-sets growth, BakBone would be rolling out a number of
sales and technical certification programs. Our partners would also be groomed
to address the storage management needs of environments which are very
heterogeneous. This way, they will add to themselves multiple capabilities.

In terms of business, we would maintain selective partnerships, which in turn
will ensure healthy growth for each of our partners. Also, the first line of
support would be provided by our partners, which opens up another revenue stream
for them.

GOLDIE