Bullish storage giant Hitachi Data Systems (HDS) claims it is outgrowing its main rivals following a strong fiscal first quarter.

According to HDS' fiscal first quarter report, the vendor pulled out 19 per cent annual growth in the three months to June, topping EMC’s storage growth of 14 per cent and IBM’s storage growth of 12 per cent.

Steve Murphy, managing director for UK and Ireland of HDS, said: “HDS took four per cent market share from both EMC and IBM. It is hitting its revenue targets that it has set for the next two years and will continue to take market share.

“HDS will bring in more accreditation for partners and is also participating in cross training, with its channel, so partners can show us what other technologies they have and how we can work with it. Our revenue grows because our partners’ revenues grow, so partner knowledge is important.”

The vendor recently claimed it doubled its UK channel business in 2007, trebled its channel staff and added 25 new SME-focused partners.

Recently voted as one of the top 100 best places to work in the UK, HDS has appointed Luke Allport as UK partner development manager specifically responsible for the vendor’s relationship with corporate VAR Computacenter.

Allport, who reports directly to Harvey Smith UK & Ireland partner manager at HDS, boasts 14 years of experience in the IT sector.

His channel experience ranges from distributor Computer 2000 to vendor Samsung, where he was corporate account manager.