Azlan aims to democratise storage market

Perkins: we can provide a clear alternative to incumbents

Distributor Azlan has promised to unlock opportunities in the high-end storage market for second-tier resellers.

As revealed by CRN, Azlan has enlisted Avnet director Mark Walker to helm its server and storage division in the UK. It is widely believed that Azlan is in line to grab a high-end storage contract with HP before the industry heavyweight joins in February.

Lee Perkins, country manager UK & Ireland at Azlan parent Computer 2000 (C2000), claimed the distributor could provide a clear alternative to incumbents.

“DNS Arrow and Bell Micro are well-established players but the market needs someone else to work outside the top 50 resellers that have done 90 per cent of storage business over the last five years,” he said.

“Yes, we will work with top integrators. But our primary focus will be on how to capitalise on our strength in SME space and educate our customers on how to take on new technologies from the vendors.”

Perkins said that Azlan’s server and storage unit’s headcount would be expanded by 50 per cent to about 15 by February.

It is rumoured that Azlan is in line to scoop an enterprise storage contract with HP around its StorageWorks Enterprise Virtual Arrays (EVA) range in January, although neither Perkins or HP would confirm this. “It is a chicken and egg thing – we need the capabilities to get the contracts, and vice versa,” admitted Perkins.

Andrew Henderson, commercial director at VAR Lanway said: “When we get our EVA specialisation the first door we knock on will be C2000/Azlan and there is probably room for them in the market.”

Loay Lawrence, commercial director at Vohkus, said: “Mark is a good acquisition for C2000 – he will enhance the value sales in that group of companies.”