Altaro searches for UK distributor to grow VMware channel

'Best-kept secret' storage vendor aims to find first UK distributor in next two weeks

Storage vendor Altaro is hoping to appoint up to two UK disties in the next fortnight in an attempt to gain more VMware partners.

Altaro's newly appointed vice president of EMEA sales, Colin Wright, told CRN that the vendor has more than 300 partners in the UK but they are mainly focused on Microsoft's Hyper-V offering.

"We do very well with Microsoft. Ninety-five per cent of our business is Hyper-V focused," he said. "We need to target the VMware market. The product has exact parity - it is very good, easy to use and very affordable for the mid-market.

"There is a big gap in the mid-market for backups in virtual services. The timing is right for us to build the market, and for that we need to leverage the VADs in the UK."

The European vendor was founded in Malta six years ago and focused on desktop backups for physical machines.

Wright said that because the company did development on Hyper-V servers, the founders looked for backups for that environment too.

"All the products were expensive and complicated," he added. "The guys thought 'we could do better ourselves'. They took what they knew about backups and applied it to the Hyper-V world. We are a best-kept secret. An organisation of our size with 35,000 customers is phenomenal."

Altaro has distributors in most countries in which it operates, including Germany and the Netherlands. Wright claims the one-tier model in the UK was an "anomaly".

"It was just because of the way the market grew in the UK. Now is the time to really structure for growth and invest in the channel," he explained.

Wright said the vendor hopes to have one or two distributors in the UK within the next two weeks.

"One of the distributors I think we will sign has about 90 VMware partners in the UK, which is a tick in the box for us. We are looking to recruit more partners and develop our existing partners," he added.

"If the potential partners are in virtualisation, that is key. We need that engagement with the VMware-specific partners, to get the message out there that we have a perfect solution that is affordable, easy to use, intuitive and will work within 15 minutes."