EMC has changed the warranties for its mid-range
Clariion line of networked storage systems. Clariion is one of the
most popular boxes for small to medium-sized enterprise (SME) users
and departmental systems in larger enterprises.
The new Clariion basic warranty has moved from 24x7 to
nine-hour-a-day, five-day-a-week support via a call centre.
However, the period of coverage has grown from two to three
years.
In the past, most Clariion arrays included installation and had
the same support as EMC’s high-end Symmetrix products.
Adam Couture, principal research analyst at Gartner, said the
new warranties will force many customers to purchase support
upgrades.
“Many Clariion customers are likely to view the move as
diminishing the value of offerings that EMC brings to the mid-range
market,” he said.
Nigel Ghent, EMC marketing director for UK and Ireland, said,
“We have adopted the industry standard. The standard with Clariion
customers has been a 24x7 three-year warranty, but this service is
now chargeable. However, the cost to upgrade to the premium service
has been reduced.”
Ghent added that EMC is willing to negotiate with large accounts
to offer flexible warranties for their whole EMC storage
environments.
EMC made the warranty changes as it rolled out the new Clariion
UltraScale architecture, supporting faster and larger storage
arrays.
Couture said EMC has dropped prices across its entire Clariion
line affected by the warranty change, to combat any user perception
that they were getting reduced value.
Current storage warranty agreements are not affected by the
changes, but will run their course.