Interface increases Sun exposure

Distributor appoints new head of Sun business unit to spearhead growth

Interface Solutions has recruited a new head for its growing Sunbusiness in the form of John Taylor.

Taylor joined the distributor two months ago from Horizon, which was snapped up by rival Avnet earlier this year (Channelweb, 18 April). Interface was itself the subject of an acquisition this year by SCH (Channelweb 4 July).

Speaking to CRN, Taylor, who also spent a decade working at Sun dealing with both indirect and direct partners/customers, said he aims to help Sun gain more traction in the volume market place with both its x86 and Sparc ranges.

“What needs to change is that Sun needs to be more vocal about its good points,” Taylor said. “The market needs a fresh approach and fresh ideas. We as a distributor have traditionally operated in the volume space, but we want to up our game and service the enterprise marketplace as well.”

“Sun has never been good at talking about what it does, but if you look at the mix of indirect and direct, I think you see a mix of business that is much more heavily weighted towards the channel,” he added.

He said the distributor would be looking to recruit new resellers that operate in the x86 marketplace but do not actually work with Sun, as well as existing Sun resellers that need to understand more about the x86 range.

“If this brings incremental Sparc business as well, it would be rude to ignore it,” he said.

The distributor is also building up its in-house Sun team to help with its expansion plans, Taylor revealed.