Express Data signs two new vendors

Express Data has made two big new additions with Blue Coat and Hitachi Data Systems joining its stable of vendors.

The new signings closely follow that of Sun and Autodesk earlier this year, which brings the distie's vendor line to 21.

Hitachi Data Systems rounds out Express Data's storage portfolio which includes storage management software from IBM, Symantec and CA.

HDS is Express Data's third storage vendor on the books after Quantum and Cisco.

Steve Kelly, channel director at HDS said that the distributor's size and presence in New Zealand were important to the vendor's decision to find an outlet for its volume channel.  

Express Data will be selling HDS's Simple Modular Storage (SMS) range targeted at SMBs and midmarket; and the AMS range aimed at mid- to enterprise-sized companies.

"There's quite a broad range of resellers that will be involved" with the SMS hardware, said Express Data's vendor channel manager David Peach.

"Express Data will initially partner and invest in a small group of 20 to 30 resellers interested in selling HDS gear."

HDS impressed Express Data with its commitment to the channel by creating channel-facing roles.

"We could see they were investing heavily," said Peach.

HDS is also retaining ACA Pacific as a distributor.

Blue Coat, which makes appliances for WAN optimisation, operates in another strong area of Express Data's business.

The Blue Coat range aims to take the complexity out of network management by prioritising applications according to importance or individual user preference.

The appliances give more weight to VoIP packets and can downgrade non-business services such as YouTube and FaceBook.

Claimed benefits include higher QOS and lower bandwidth costs due to increased efficiency.

Express Data was introduced to Blue Coat through Packeteer, already an Express Data partner prior to being acquired by Blue Coat last year.

Blue Coast is the third in Express Data's network management portfolio alongside Cisco and Citrix.

Blue Coat's appeal is that it can offer end-to-end network management by combining WAN optimisation (using Packeteer technology) with Blue Coat's Proxy SG security product.

Peach said Express Data has already received high levels of interest in Blue Coat appliances.

"Express Data would expect that more than 50 per cent of sales would come after a reseller has let a customer evaluate it in their own network," said Peach.

"Customers who try it just say leave it on the network and tell me how much it costs."