Bell Microproducts has signed a pan-European distribution deal with data storage vendor Plasmon.

Under the terms of the deal, Bell will distribute Plasmon’s Raidtec range of Raid storage products, including its NAS, direct-attached storage and SAN products. The signing will make Bell the vendor’s seventh distributor, including CMS Peripherals and Zycko.

Tom Ellis, European product manager at Bell Microproducts, said: “This allows us to go out with one centralised message and to offer the right solution to the customer. We are not looking to just mass-distribute a line through Europe.”

Bell will add Raidtec’s products to its Storage Components and Software team, responsible for storage hardware, infrastructure and software technology, such as virtualisation and resource management.

The team targets a wide range of markets including medical, CCTV, video editing, education and SMEs.

Paul Devine, EMEA sales director for Plasmon’s Raidtec solutions, said: “Bell Micro in Europe has established a reputation as a highly competent value-added storage distributor, so we are pleased that Plasmon has been added to its list of vendor partners.”

Astley Gayle, product manager for UK and Ireland at rival Plasmon distributor CMS Peripherals, said: “Our relationship with Plasmon is for its Raidtec and optical lines. I don’t see this deal as a threat to our market; it simply reflects the level of demand for Raidtec products in Europe.”

Last November, Plasmon launched its first Raidtec channel partner recruitment campaign, dubbed Operation Raid. The letters for the campaign were designed to look as if they were secret documents sent by the CIA (CRN, 28 November).

james_sherwood@vnu.co.uk