Commtech boss defects to flash firm Kaminario

Mark Walker appointed UK and Ireland channel director

Flash startup Kaminario has continued its hiring spree by appointing Commtech man Mark Walker as its UK and Ireland channel director.

The Massachusetts-based firm has been going since 2010 and earlier this year took a swipe at fellow all-flash player Pure Storage, claiming its rival's tech is "nothing new".

Since then, it has been assembling a European team, poaching ex-Pure Storage execs Vince Blackall and Fiona Moon as EMEA channel boss marketing director respectively.

The latest channel player to have been lured in by the feisty flash startup is Mark Walker, who until this month ran storage VAD Commtech's UK operations.

He had been at the distributor for three-and-a-half years and before that held roles at Azlan and Avnet.

Walker confirmed the move on his LinkedIn page and praised his new company's technology.

"Kaminario's vision is to make flash so accessible that it can be implemented in data centres as primary storage," he said. "The Kaminario K2 [product] is the most cost-effective all-flash array on the market, optimised for the lowest cost per usable GB while also providing consistent performance and scalability across any workload in any environment."

Kaminario's Moon said in a statement: "Mark Walker has joined Kaminario as director of UK and Ireland channel. He has very extensive experience in the channel and is highly respected in the industry. This is a strong addition to our growing team as the company continues to expand in EMEA with the recruitment of both members of staff and channel partners."