Channel Awards 2025: Q&A with Kieron Mitchell General Manager, Enterprise Components at Hammer Distribution

Western Digital and Hammer were among the companies that supported this year’s Channel Awards in November, a key moment in the UK channel calendar. The event brought together vendors, distributors and partners to celebrate achievements across the ecosystem and reflect on the market’s current challenges and opportunities.

In this Q&A, Western Digital and Hammer discuss how they are working with customers amid ongoing technology shifts, the innovation areas they are prioritising, and the trends they expect to shape the channel in the months ahead.

Why is Western Digital and Hammer proud to support the Channel Awards, and what role do these events play in the UK channel ecosystem?

Events like this bring together vendors, distributors and our partners, to celebrate the technology and collaboration that drives uk channel success.

How are you helping customers drive growth and navigate the biggest challenges facing the channel today, from technology adoption to competitive pressures?

We are helping customers drive growth by combining WD’s storage solutions, with Hammers expertise and support. Together we enable our partners to confidently adopt new tech, optimise performance and deliver greater value to their end users.

Which areas of innovation are Western Digital and Hammer most focused on this year, and why?

The innovation of higher capacity nearline Enterprise drives, such as WD’s 26TB today and their future capacities roadmapped.

What advice would you give to channel partners looking to scale their business?

Forecast and plan ahead! With supply constraints expected to last we need as much visibility as possible to ensure supply.

Looking ahead, what trends or opportunities do you see shaping the future of the UK channel?

Where Everyone is focused on the GPU opportunity that AI presents, the next trend is storage. Mass capacity drives will be key to storing the AI generated Data in the LLM’s.

This post is sponsored by Hammer Distribution.