Bullish new Violin bigwig claims firm 'invented flash'

New EMEA channel director Sally Reade insists Violin is 'back on an even keel'

Violin's new EMEA channel boss has shrugged off competition in the flash space, claiming her company invented the technology.

Sally Reade (pictured) joined Violin as its EMEA channel sales director three weeks ago. She joined from Tintri and has held a number of channel roles during her career, including at Veeam, VMware and EMC.

She told CRN that her main goal in the job is to boost the partner numbers from 11 (in the UK), but said there is no magic number the firm is aiming for.

"Reinvigorating" its pan-EMEA distribution agreement with Arrow is another point on her to-do list, she said.

Competition in the flash space has hotted up in recent years, with new upstarts – such as Reade's former employer Tintri – and Pure Storage bursting onto the scene. She said the storage industry is undergoing huge change but said Violin can cash in.

"I think it is a volatile space at the moment - who would have predicted six months ago that EMC would be bought?" Reade said. "If that can happen, anything can happen. This is quite a saturated market and I think partners and customers as well are probably a little bit confused about the differentials in the technologies out there. They are still feeling their way and there is a lot of uncertainty there.

"But if you look at Violin, this is the company which really invented flash technology. It has 92 patents. This company has a product that is 10 years old and it is robust and very well developed. I think once the dust has settled, with our new product... customers and partners will look at Violin in a very different way than they have done in the past."

Violin has had a turbulent few years. In its Q2, which ended 31 July, Violin made a net loss of $24.4m (£15.9m), compared with a $8.4m loss a year ago. The company admitted its strategy had been "challenging" and "not as seamless as we would like".

Reade said that since then, the company has turned over a new leaf.

"I'm sure partners are looking at [us] and have a lot of questions," she admitted. "I am going to be able to answer those questions. Yes, there has been a lot of change at Violin, but I think it is definitely back on an even keel now and they have recruited a lot of industry experts into the new management team so those people will bring a lot of expertise and value to Violin.

"There is a new product set and a lot of extremely good incentives for partners at the moment. I think onwards and upwards from here. Violin does have a strong core of partners who have stuck with us through thick and thin over the past four or five years and I think they would have only done that if they had faith in the technology and could make money selling it.

"We as a company have a lot to prove, but there is a huge amount we can achieve moving forward."