Xiotech trawls UK in partner push

Storage blade vendor wants cloud and virtualisation VARs to push new product

Xiotech is gunning for growth in the UK by touting itself as one of the channel's last surviving independent storage vendors.

The US-based firm manufactures scalable storage blades, which provide the hardware architecture for cloud environments and virtualisation projects.

The vendor is on the hunt for partners in the UK to market the latest version of its storage blade technology, known as Hybrid ISE.

Alan Atkinson, chief executive of Xiotech, said the product is the first of many it plans to release as part of its goal to build up its channel presence across EMEA.

He said: "There are not a lot of strong independent players, like Isilon or Data Domain, left in the storage industry because of consolidation, which has taken away a lot of our competition and will give [our] partners an advantage."

The channel currently accounts for a third of the company's global business, but Atkins said the firm aims to be 80 per cent indirect eventually.

He said: "We are aggressively pursuing channel partners in the UK. We have been around a long time and have a few already, and want to make sure we are giving them the support they need, too."

In particular, the firm is looking for VARs that specialise in server and desktop virtualisation and cloud, and those that hold specific accreditations with other vendors.

Brian Reagan, chief marketing officer at Xiotech, explained: "VMware, Citrix and Microsoft are very strong alliance partners for us. Therefore, there are certain competencies around their virtualisation technologies that it would be good for partners to have."