New Dot Hill exec plots channel changes

SAN vendor's new vice president of worldwide channels outlines brand-building plans

Dot Hill Systems' new vice president of worldwide channels is planning a shake-up of the SAN vendor's partner programme and is on the hunt for storage VARs to build awareness of the brand.

Brad Painter recently left rival vendor Pillar Data Systems to join Dot Hill's global channel management team.

Speaking to ChannelWeb, he said he joined the firm because of its heritage and technology, but claimed few channel firms and end users are aware of it because of its OEM background.

"There are a lot of partners and end users who do not know who Dot Hill are," said Painter. "We have been in business 27 years, but have only just really started to concentrate on pushing out our own branded solutions."

To rectify this, Painter said the vendor is recruiting for partners, especially those well versed in VMware and Citrix, and VARs with SMB and mid-market experience.

"We are not playing in the high-end enterprise market," he said. "Partners that commit to us will get high margins. We are also planning to relaunch the partner programme to ensure all partners get the support they need."

In addition, the vendor is planning to take part in more trade shows and events, he revealed. "My goal is to get customers excited and talking about us. We need hundreds more of them to go and spread the word about Dot Hill."