NetApp and Violin bag new EMEA channel bigwigs

Sally Reade jumps ship to Violin while NetApp rejigs its senior channel team

NetApp and Violin Memory have appointed new channel bosses for the EMEA region, with the latter snagging a storage veteran from a direct flash rival.

Sally Reade joined Violin Memory this month as its channel sales director for EMEA from competitor Tintri, where she was its EMEA channel manager for almost two years. Before that, she spent 10 months at storage startup Whiptail - which was acquired by Cisco - as its channel boss, following other channel roles at EMC, Veeam and VMware.

Reade confirmed the move on her LinkedIn page and at the time of publication, neither Violin nor Tintri were available to comment.

Fellow storage player NetApp has also rejigged its EMEA channel leadership team, with Alfred Manhart becoming its senior director of channel and systems integrators for EMEA. He started the role this month and was previously NetApp's senior director of systems integrators, service providers, alliances and business development. He joined NetApp in 2004 and has held a number of EMEA channel roles since then.

Previously, NetApp's EMEA channel was run by Sven Schnoenaerts, but now he will take responsibility for the Benelux region instead.

NetApp said the channel reshuffle "consolidates channel and integration services into one entity and enables NetApp to deliver them to the customer from one source".

"Customer requirements for data infrastructure are changing rapidly as they recognise the value of software and increasingly look for application-centric and cloud-ready solutions or applications tailored to their vertical market," the company said.

"The new channel setup enables NetApp to better address these needs and allows customers to identify and leverage new, software-driven and service-based business models built on macro-trends like the Internet of Things, mobility, and big data."