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To technologists, SMP stands for symmetrical multiprocessing. To customers, it means Significantly More Power. And to VARs, SMP represents Serious Market Potential.
According to figures from Dataquest Inc., the overall market for SMP servers will near $6 billion in 1998, from $3.9 billion in 1994. The channel's revenue from SMP systems is likely to more than double over the next four years, from almost $900 million in 1994 to just under $2 billion in 1998, Dataquest predicts.
The primary factor driving that explosive growth is the need for more processing power on network servers. A variety of CPU-intensive applications (large-scale databases chief among them) simply are rendering existing single-processor systems inadequate.
In addition to their requirements for pure horsepower, customers are also looking for more secure platforms on which to run these mission-critical applications. That makes the fault tolerance that SMP servers offer very attractive. Customers are also demanding flexibility, scalability and high performance at a reasonable price point, and they're finding that SMP may offer just what they need.
VARs are particularly well-positioned to take advantage of SMP market growth because it's a relatively new technology and therefore requires the kind of expertise that sends many customers looking for outside help. Multiprocessor servers, SMP operating systems, associated peripherals and the applications themselves must all be properly tuned and integrated. The complexity of the SMP equation means there's plenty of opportunity to add value through configuration services and bundled sales.
Poised for Profit
Because SMP sales are closely tied to the applications that drive them, VARs that are active in the software development market are most likely to spot potential SMP customers and solutions. Thibault Associates Inc. in Pleasant Hill, Calif., is a prime example. Among its many vendor authorizations, the Inacom-affiliated integrator is both an Oracle Business Partner and a Hewlett-Packard Value-Added Reseller. "You can be doing development work for a customer, and it...