37. Ethos Technology
Revenue: £24m (+60%)
Staff: 30
Specialism: Storage
Key vendors: Pure Storage, Cohesity, Hitachi Ventara, Panzura, Datacore
Founded in 2015 with an aim of "bridging the technology gap between the USA and the UK", Ethos Technology counts Pure Storage and Cohesity among its vendor allies.
The Oxfordshire-based storage VAD claims it is on course to turn over £70m in its year to 31 January 2023 after logging revenues just shy of a respective £15m and £24m in fiscal 2021 and 2022 (according to numbers it shared with us).
Q&A with Ethos Technology CEO Omar Galbraith
What's been your biggest business highlight of 2022 so far?
Winning several major partner contracts due to our value add.
Do you expect to grow in 2022?
Yes, we are looking at over 200 per cent growth this year.
What's the one market trend everyone else is missing?
We believe that cloud native software and APIs utilising a hybrid approach will be the way forward. We hear a lot of public cloud-first only strategies, until pricing, reliability and migration are discussed.
2022 will have been a successful year if we continue to grow and sign at least one of two vendors we are in late discussions with
Have you made any significant vendor signings in the last 12 months?
Hitachi Vantara, Valtix and Panzura.
Which emerging vendor/technology are you tipping for take-off in 2022?
Valtix and Panzura.
2022 will have been a successful year for your company if… we continue to grow and sign at least one of two vendors we are in late discussions with.
Distributor share prices have cooled over the last 12 months. Is that a concern?
Not for us we are completely self-funded with no outside investment and considerable growth.
How is the chip shortage impacting you, and when will it end?
Luckily, it's not impacting us as our core vendors. Pure and Cohesity are still offering lead times of two to four weeks. As to when it will end… that depends on winter and the chance of further lockdowns or Covid restrictions in manufacturing regions.
2022 has seen a couple of blockbuster distribution mergers already. What M&A trends do you expect to see over the next 12 months?
I think in this market we will see a lot of consolidation, both within distribution and reseller world. When the world's economies are struggling, and doubt is in business, this tends to happen.
What, if any, role does distribution have to play when it comes to sustainability?
All vendors we represent reduce, power cooling and footprint in the DC. All our vendors have their own high ESG score.
What's been your biggest business mistake?
Ethos had the opportunity to sign one of two vendors many years ago and we picked the wrong horse and no longer work with the vendor we selected. The other is now a multi-billion-valued tier one. We won't make that mistake again.
Which VAD boss rues not setting up his own business earlier? See next page for more...
