Xiotech marches into Europe

Enterprise San vendor sticks with sole UK reseller

Enterprise storage area network (San) vendor Xiotech is making a major push into the European marketplace though its sole UK reseller, BI-Tech.

Xiotech, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Seagate, has been established with a direct sales force in North America since 1995. However, in Europe the company intends to be completely channel oriented, said Andrew Batty, European business development director at Xiotech.

"Europe is not a homogeneous market, and using the channel will accelerate our time to market. The channel is the key to European markets," he said.

Owen Smith, operations manager at BI-Tech, said: "Xiotech operates through us because the investment and complexity of a San solution means lots of people do not want to get those skill requirements. Seagate also wants to ramp up its efforts in the European market."

He added that the cost of setting up a direct sales force in Europe would be "colossal", but admitted: "One never knows if things may change in the future."