Diamond Point guns for storage big boys

Computing distributor brings in Frank Sutton to lead new storage division

Diamond Point International (DPI) has hired Consolidate IT director Frank Sutton to lead its quest to become one of the UK's top storage distributors.

The Rochester-based firm has been working closely with vendor Fusion-io for more than a year, pushing the vendor's high-performance wares into the UK channel.

DPI managing director John Vaines said: "They gave us a challenge that was slightly out of our raison d'etre. We are now their primary distributor for the UK and most of Europe."

Vaines explained that he has been running his firm's storage operations so far. The company also distributes FalconStor and, for the past eight months, DPI has also been the sole EMEA distributor for Violin Memory.

"I have been making some progress, but it is a product that requires a storage expert," said Vaines. "We are setting up a separate entity – we will have Fusion and Violin as the primary storage products and build a set of products around this for better performance and connectivity."

Frank Sutton, formerly UK and Ireland development director at 10 Gigabit Ethernet distributor Consolidate IT, has joined DPI as storage product manager. The distributor is performing proof-of-concept exercises at a handful of major finance firms, said Sutton.

"The focus right now is doing a lot of direct touch, and I am looking for about 10 medium-sized resellers focused in certain verticals," he added. "I am looking to expand the SMB stuff, where Fusion is a great tool to open the door."

Sutton added that, although DPI is a relatively specialist player at the moment, it has designs on ruffling the feathers of the likes of Hammer and Zycko.

"We are small and we are niche at the moment," he said. "We are targeting high-performance, high-value, high-authorisation projects. We are intending to expand the portfolio into a more generalist offering."

Vaines added that the Fusion-io relationship continues to go from strength to strength, with about $300,000 (£187,324) worth of business already transacted this year. He claimed sales would shoot up in the second half of 2011.

"The next six to eight months are going to be fairly tough-going, but then it is really going to go some," he added.