NetApp is bringing its StoreVault line for small and medium-sized business to the UK in a distribution deal with storage specialist Hammer.

The StoreVault s500, which scales up to 6TB, launched in the US earlier this year. NetApp says it has received a warm welcome, signing up 250+ value-added resellers. StoreVault gear will now roll out in the UK and Australia in January.

Hammer will be responsible for recruiting resellers here, who'll be asked to punt the StoreVault S500 as the only true SAN-and-NAS-in-a-box accessible to small outfits. StoreVault will be exclusively flogged throught the channel here, starting at £3,500 for a 1TB box.

The firm announced today it would be adding fibre channel support to the S500 through a deal with QLogic. It's also adding StoreVault Replication to the package, which brings NetApp's enterprise software for data replication and disaster recovery to its SMB punters.

NetApp has been feeling its way down the storage food chain, having been known as a go-to-guy for whopping enterpise and supercomputing storage. Its tie-up with IBM has given it access to the mid-market, while setting up the StoreVault division puts it head-to-head with HP in the genuine SMB space. ®