HDS primes VARs for converged infrastructure push

Vendor claims channel will 'lead the charge' to grab market share

HDS has urged its resellers to get on board with its converged infrastructure push as it looks to grow its presence in the market.

The vendor claims it has already grabbed about 14 per cent market share after having only been in the market for a few months, and added that its partners are set to lead the charge to snap up more share.

HDS has recently added a converged infrastructure arm to its Unified Compute Platform partner programme to further its efforts in the space - with partners ranked from lowest-level Sales partners up to Solutions and top-level Elite VARs.

Sales partners receive sales training from HDS, while Solutions VARs get to transfer other vendors' accreditations to HDS, meaning no further specific training is required. Top-level partners receive higher rebates and more detailed support services training.

The storage vendor's UK channel director Neill Burton (pictured) said that by setting a specific programme in place, the firm is well positioned to grow.

"We could do a couple of things [to grow our market share]," explained Burton.

"We could, like some competitors, spend £1bn building a global services company over a couple of years and try to take this market ourselves, or we can be more pragmatic and understand what the dynamics of the market [are] and look to our partners to lead the charge for us."

Today marks the end of HDS' first quarter, which Burton claims has been the busiest he has known since joining last year.

He added that further growth is expected for the firm off the back of the booming converged infrastructure space.

"Depending on [which analyst] you look at, as opposed to traditional IT markets, the converged infrastructure market is growing between 50 and 60 per cent based on compound annual growth rate," Burton said.

"That is not sustainable forever, but there are five, six or seven years of growth ahead of us. For early entrants, the promise of nirvana when the market first [began] was not fully realised. We see our offerings as the next generation."