Arrow shoots Ellis into EMEA CTO hotseat

First act in new role is signing new NetApp services agreement

Arrow's David Ellis has marked his arrival in the new role of EMEA CTO by signing a deal to take NetApp services to the region's channel partners.

Ellis (pictured) – who joined Arrow when it acquired his former employer Computerlinks – was the global distie's UK director of strategy until this month, when he was made EMEA chief technology officer and senior director of services. Arrow is currently in the process of filling Ellis' former UK role.

In the CTO element of his new role, he will sign up new vendors and new technology across the EMEA region. On the services side of things, he will ensure Arrow takes advantage of the fast-changing technology landscape.

"There is a lot of change in the market," he told CRN. "The services element [of the new role] is about the services and education business, which is critical. It's about building those offerings and taking advantage of the fast pace of technology change and ensuring the services and education business is developing in line with that change and adding value to what partners are doing."

One of Ellis' first acts in the new role will be to oversee a new services offering Arrow has recently put together with vendor NetApp.

The distie is now rolling out its Arrow StorageGuard service, which supports NetApp technology. The new offering gives maintenance and support services for NetApp hardware and software products to its partners across EMEA. The scheme was run as a pilot in the Netherlands and is now being taken out across the region.

Three levels of support – standard, essential and premium – are offered to partners as part of the service, all of which include 24/7 technical support.

Ellis said demand for services is getting stronger.

"[Services] are something customers are very aware of – the days of providing tin are long gone. Some partners are not in a position to build their own services... so it makes commercial sense to partner to deliver those services on their behalf."