Hammer has big plans for QLogic SANbox
Storage distributor hoping to break into new markets
Storage distributor Hammer is hoping to smash into new markets with QLogic’s latest SAN offering and is busy recruiting resellers on behalf of the vendor to gain market share.
Last week, the distributor held a dedicated event for existing and potential QLogic VARs to stir up interest in the recently launched SANbox 9000 core-level switch, which QLogic is aiming at enterprise-level open-systems environments.
Paul Hickingbotham, solutions manager at Hammer, said the market was promising for QLogic.
“This is very much a move into a new area,” he said. “We have always had a good market share as a distributor for QLogic’s host bus adapter and enterprise-level switches. Last year, we saw our QLogic revenue grow by 40 per cent. The SANbox 9000 is its first director-class product aimed at enterprises with a data centre set-up.
“We had a good response on the day from existing QLogic resellers and also a good turnout from potential new partners. It gave us a chance to educate VARs about the market opportunities the SANbox brings.”
Bob Aitchison, director EMEA channel at QLogic, said: “The SANbox is a new type of product for us in storage networking. It offers our partners something different from the other vendors in the market.
“There are very large director switches out there, but this is the first multi-protocol switching system available at a very aggressive price-point for the channel. Hammer was very quick to arrange this event and it already has a wide reseller base, so we are obviously very excited about the future.”