DataCore signs Commtech as third UK distributor

Virtualisation software vendor continues to tinker with UK distribution line-up

Software vendor DataCore has signed up its second UK and Ireland (UKI) distributor in six months, less than a year after claiming it was "over-distributed" in the region.

The vendor has today announced a partnership with distributor Commtech in a move it hopes will grow sales in its Virtual Desktop Server (VDS) product, after starting work with VAD Hammer at the start of 2013.

Until last summer, DataCore worked with Magirus, Arrow and Avnet, but canned the former around the time it was acquired by Avnet. At the same time, it axed its Arrow partnership and claimed it wanted just one more distributor to complement remaining partner Avnet, which came later in the year in the form of Hammer.

DataCore was unavailable to comment further on what the new signing means for its UK channel strategy, but its newly appointed regional director Bjarne Poulsen said in a statement that the move to expand the reach of its lower-cost offerings with Commtech could benefit the region.

He said: "Commtech is an established route to market for storage and virtualisation vendors in Ireland and has more recently been building an effective capability in the UK.

"VDS will enrich their partners with a cost-effective virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) solution at 75 per cent reduced cost compared to alternative offerings. This will prove critical in the current Irish and the UK economic climate and will kick-start cash-strapped VDI projects."

When Poulsen took over from long-serving UK channel manager Keith Joseph earlier in the year, a channel source claimed the move signalled unrest within the vendor.

Commtech's UK managing director Mark Walker said that he expects uptake of DataCore's offerings with its customers to be immediate, adding that VDI is coming of age for its reseller partners.