Irish distie Data Solutions in £4m UK push

Nutanix distributor sets £30m revenue goal after opening Reading office

Irish distributor Data Solutions has launched into the UK, taking on Sean Fane (pictured right along with directors) as UK managing director as part of its "ambitious plans".

Founded in 1991, Data Solutions focuses on the datacentre, security, and unified communications and counts Citrix, Nutanix and Check Point among its vendors.

It is now expanding into the UK market and has opened a Reading office as part of a £3.8m internal investment in this new division.

"We have quite ambitious plans in the UK around growth and expansion, so that money is funding all the supporting infrastructure and the staff," Fane told CRN.

Fane, who joined the company in December and has previously served as managing director of distributor IQ-Sys, said the reason behind the UK launch was the recent success of the distributor's partnership with Nutanix, which has now become the sole vendor for the UK arm of Data Solutions.

But he said this will not remain its only vendor and he is expecting to make new additions in the coming months and suggested this will be around virtualisation and data management.

"We are focused on creating a tight set of complementary partners to Nutanix with our portfolio," he said.

Data Solutions has become Nutanix's third UK distie, alongside BigTec and Tech Data, but Fane said certain factors mark out his distributor from other market players.

"We are extremely focused on Nutanix, and focus is one of those things that people take a bit for granted," he said. "Where other distributors may have seven or eight different technologies, they can't provide that level of focus or commitment; that's one of our USPs. Another is we have strong experience in the application-delivery space and BigTec, for example, came from a different market; they are more of a storage-orientated partner. We are an organisation that has excellent competency in the application and the desktop."

Fane said he is looking to focus on UK enterprise resellers that have perhaps not yet made the move to infrastructure.

"The kind of partner that is perfectly suited to us is generally a partner that has strong business in the desktop and VDI (virtual desktop infrastructure) space but also has strong technical competence and the desire to sell into the infrastructure piece where they have previously [not been].

"There are a number of strong Citrix partners that have good technical competency and are looking to move sales into the datacentre and this hyperconverged solution is a great way for them to do this without having to go through 10 different vendor accreditations," he said. "They can just bring in Nutanix and wrap that sale with one vendor."

The Irish operations of Data Solutions currently has yearly revenues of about £20m but it is looking to push this up to £30m over the next two years. Fane said because the UK market is so much bigger, he is hopeful he can hit sales of £30m over the same period, giving the group combined revenues of £60m.

The UK division is recruiting 10 staff to its Reading office but Fane said he is looking to double this number over the next two years.

Channel thoughts

Rupert Collier, UK and Ireland senior channel manager at Paessler, said he expects to see Data Solutions succeed with the UK launch.

"They have developed a really strong brand in Ireland and have become a genuine lifeline for their resellers," he said. "They have done a great job for Citrix and I think they'll do well over here and in Sean Fane, they have a real stalwart of the industry."

Collier said in order to be successful with the UK launch, Data Solutions should take on a few unknown vendors that will become the next big thing.

But not everyone was convinced that the move could prove successful for Data Solutions or Nutanix.

Graham Brown, managing director at reseller Gyrocom, said Nutanix's recent OEM agreement with Lenovo, which means Lenovo's distributors can sell Nutanix products which sit on Lenovo's platform, means that it is already stretched.

"I think they [Nutanix] are over-distributed and are at very high risk of becoming accelerated to commodity and the market price could drop," the Nutanix partner said.