BigTec bags double vendor signing

Datacentre distributor inks contracts with backup vendor Rubrik and network application player Avi Networks

BigTec UK has signed up two US start-ups as it continues its quest to challenge established vendors with new datacentre players.

The datacentre division of Exclusive Networks has signed Rubrik, which provides a similar offering to Nutanix and delivers data backup through virtual machines.

Palo Alto-headquartered Rubrik is launching in the UK with its BigTec agreement, and the vendor also signed a deal with distributor Commtech a couple of weeks ago.

Jason Dance, BigTec's managing director, said he was not concerned by Rubrik's other signing.

"If you have two distributors operating different investment models then one can appear to be cheaper," he said. "But Rubrik has assured us they have strict controls in place to protect both resellers and distributors that are effectively investing and being proactive. The market is massive so we shouldn't be tripping over each other."

Dance said he is hoping to sign up 12 to 15 partners with Rubrik and that resellers selling VMware are a natural fit for this technology.

As well as Rubrik, BigTec has announced a partnership with Avi Networks, which provides load balancers for applications, helping applications cope with periods of high-network traffic.

BigTec is becoming Avi's only distributor in the UK with this agreement, and the Santa Clara-based vendor is launching in the region through the partnership, having no legacy business here.

Dance said again he is looking for between 12 and 15 resellers with this partnership and he is hoping to go after partners that are happy to incorporate this technology into a complete solution for the software-defined datacentre.

"Some of the larger partners want to provide a holistic solution and for those partners there may be overlap for Avi and Rubrik," he said. "But then we may find there are some backup-specific partners and they may not want to have both products."

Dance said these two signings will help differentiate BigTec, as the technology is something different.

"I think these two are really essential," he said. "For us to build out the value proposition, application delivery and backup are problems that the incumbents [vendors] are potentially unable to address as we move to the dynamic, fully virtual environment."

Combined with a number of BigTec's other vendors, Dance said the new additions help to provide a complete offering in the software-defined datacentre and this can give resellers an advantage over going with the traditional market players.

"Our company is looking to disrupt the incumbents," he said. "By piecing eight or nine of these vendors together to create great solutions, it suddenly becomes very compelling and very disruptive."