Kaminario claims it is taking VARs from storage rivals
Flash start-up says it has bagged 25 UK VARs in past three months, with some taking it on in place of rival vendors
Flash start-up Kaminario has claimed storage resellers are joining it from rival vendors as it has signed up 25 UK partners in the past three months.
Founded in 2010, Kaminario is an all-flash vendor based in Massachusetts and offers an average price per gigabyte of storage of less than $1 - something it claims is a differentiator. Last year it launched in the UK, opening an office in Farnborough in November, signing up CMS Distribution in October and building an EMEA team of 22 staff mainly based in the UK and France.
Mick Bradley, Kaminario EMEA vice president who joined in November, told CRN that the firm is in a strong position compared with its rivals.
"The old legacy storage vendors - and this is well documented - are seeing quarter-on-quarter decline in revenues," he said. "They are struggling in a transition. Some companies are taking more radical steps to manage that transition than others. I believe the future is companies like Kaminario that bring the next evolution of tech, because if you are going to move to an all-flash datacentre, you'd better have a product that's designed for that."
Bradley said that because of its differentiation in the market - around its cost-efficient all-flash products and its 100 per cent channel model - it has been able to attract 25 partners in the past three months.
He would not name any of these partners, but said they were a mix of boutique VARs and huge resellers and said some have joined from competitors, although he would not give a specific number or name any vendors.
"Some have added us as their only enterprise flash-storage [vendor], some have added us to the portfolio and some have dropped off some of the other vendors to put us there," he said.
As well as taking on new partners, Kaminario has also taken on a number of new execs in recent months. In August it signed up erstwhile Pure Storage channel boss Vince Blackall as EMEA channel sales director, and former Pure exec Fiona Moon as EMEA marketing director. Then in September it added distributor Commtech's UK country manager Mark Walker as UK channel director.
Bradley, who also served at storage rival Violin Memory, said taking on industry veterans such as Blackall has "been huge" for the company.
"You can see for yourself we are attracting the brightest and the best from companies that have pioneered in the past," he said. "I'm not too interested in taking people from companies that are declining because we are bringing the next wave of innovation to our clients. The fact the channel is coming to us and can see the benefits is evidence to me that we are on the right track."