Avnet swoops on FalconStor deal

New territories: Avnet and FalconStor hope to replicate their success in the Benelux region in the UK

Avnet has high hopes for its latest partnership with deduplication and networked storage vendor FalconStor.

The distributor becomes the second UK partner for FalconStor, which also works with Hammer.

Under the terms of the deal, Avnet will supply FalconStor’s full range of products, including its Continuous Data Protector, Network Storage Server, Virtual Tape Library and File-interface Deduplication System. It will also recruit a network
of partners on behalf of the vendor.

Mark Walker, EMEA director of the storage product business group at Avnet, said the vendor’s product set has no overlap with its existing offerings.

“FalconStor’s product set will help resellers extend or enhance the solution that they are already offering,” said Walker. “It definitely adds to an offering, rather than replacing existing technology, by bringing with it increased functionality.

“We have been talking to Falconstor in the past few months and what we will bring to the table is a different set of resellers operating in a different part of the market.”

Avnet’s plan is to tackle the UK market first and look at extending the model into other European territories, Walker said, adding that the distributor already works closely with FalconStor in Benelux.

Guillaume Imberti, general manager of FalconStor’s EMEA operations, said: “Avnet has a strong reputation in the channel and this is what made it such an attractive partnership.

“It will allow our data protection solutions to find their way to many customers and resellers striving for better data efficiency and protection. We believe it will strengthen our distribution reach throughout Europe.”