Nexenta crowns Getech first EMEA distie amid channel push
Storage vendor says it is putting its grand channel plan into action
Distributor Getech has become storage firm Nexenta's first-appointed distie in EMEA, marking what the vendor claims is the start of a huge channel push.
The new deal will see Getech distribute Nexenta's open source, software-defined storage products across the UK and marks the vendor's first distributor signing across the whole of EMEA. As the partnership gets underway, Getech is set to roll out a fully certified technical support team to its VARs.
The move comes after the vendor burst into the channel at the end of last year, targeting giants like EMC and NetApp. Back in November, Nexenta's new chief exec Tarkan Maner likened his firm to a "Jedi network coming in against the dark empire".
Maner said his firm looked at a few disties before settling on Getech, which it claims has similar values to Nexenta.
"Getech is like Nexenta: it is very disruptive and passionate about the channel and customers - they have the same values at us," he said. "We want to disrupt the massively expensive storage systems providers that are currently holding storage users hostage.
"We have made a big investment in the channel and now we are putting our words into action."
Maner added that he hopes the Getech signing will prompt resellers to flock towards the firm, but insisted that quality was more important than quantity.
In the long term, Nexenta did not rule out signing larger, volume-based distributors but said it was happy with its value-added distie Getech for now.
Getech's managing director Guy Watts said he shares Nexenta's passion to dethrone the likes of EMC and NetApp.
"Our goal is to disrupt the stranglehold that the likes of NetApp and EMC have on the market," he said. "After meeting and speaking to a number of key resellers and customers it is clear the market is keen to explore new alternatives to the big hardware storage providers.
"The software-defined world offers a real alternative and Nexenta's storage is underpinning the data centre of the future."