Coraid laments impact of M&A on storage VARs

Ethernet SAN vendor claims resellers are being left out in cold by storage channel consolidation

Ethernet SAN vendor Coraid claims that scores of VARs have been left high and dry by the recent run of acquisitions in the storage channel.

Coraid marked the start of its EMEA expansion plans earlier this week with the rollout of its first channel programme, which already counts VARs Bell Microsystems and S3 as members.

The firm specialises in Ethernet SAN products, which it claims are cheaper to buy and perform better than its competitors'.

Kevin Brown, chief executive of Coraid, told ChannelWeb: "For every dollar of virtualisation end users buy, they usually end up spending another four or five dollars on storage.

"For some businesses, storage accounts for 40 per cent of their IT budget and that is not sustainable. Our value proposition is that we can cut that figure to 20 per cent and, in turn, make those virtualisation projects viable."

The firm's technology would be a good fit for VARs that have been left wanting by the buyouts of Sun, Compellent and 3Par, he added.

"All the second-generation storage companies that were worth buying have been bought by the big guys and lots of resellers have seen their storage partners just evaporate overnight," said Brown.

"Resellers that are not the favoured company partner are finding themselves out of luck, and are now looking for products to fill the gap, which is great news for us."