MegaDrive inks fed reseller pact with EdgeMark

MegaDrive Systems Inc. has signed federal reseller EdgeMark Systems Inc. to carry its high-performance removable storage products. EdgeMark will bundle the storage gear as part of turnkey solutions based on Silicon Graphics Inc. workstations.

MegaDrive markets five products that range in capacity from 50G to multiple terabytes, with a focus on Redundant Array of Inexpensive Disks (RAID) technology for users who require high availability. EdgeMark, which will carry these products on its General Services Administration schedule, intends to use MegaDrive technology in such areas as World Wide Web servers, simulation, computer-aided design and modeling. EdgeMark added SGI desktop computers to its schedule in November.

EdgeMark "has the knowledge and understanding to put together a packaged solution for [federal] customers," said Bruce Matthews, federal sales manager at MegaDrive's Rockville, Md., office.

MegaDrive will continue to sell its products directly and through other channels, Matthews said. However, the company wanted a reseller that could focus on delivering packaged solutions, he said.

EdgeMark's strategy is to put together solutions using products available on its GSA schedule. In addition to SGI, EdgeMark also carries 3-D imaging technology from Alias Wavefront, Adobe's Photoshop and Illustrator, Netscape Communications Corp. Web browsers for SGI, color printers from Tektronix Inc. and other products.

"If we had a customer who had large storage requirements, we had access to some solutions, but they weren't necessarily available on schedule," said Lee Raesly, vice president of EdgeMark, Gaithersburg, Md.

For example, SGI has developed strong ties in the high-end database and Web server markets, where high availability is critical, Raesly said.