LSI reveals channel moves
Storage and networking OEM specialist LSI (NYSE:LSI) has announced quartet of initiatives, products and restructuring to extend its channel position, partnerships and customer relationships.
The manufacturer has launched a new Channel Alliance Partner Solutions (CAPS) programme for manufacturers of storage products including joint interoperability testing labs, beta testing for verifying compatibility prior to release and access to product samples for joint customer design wins.
Says Thomas Pavel, director channel sales, EMEA (pictured): “The new CAPS programme will enable us to develop and maintain relationships with strategic business partners, drive interoperability, product integration and joint solutions to deliver customer value.”
Initial CAPS members will include partners such as Supermicro and Seagate. However, the scheme is of importance to firms like Nexenta that have expressed a desire to grow its own channel by offering pre-certified solutions for its software stack.
CAPS will focus on the complete LSI storage portfolio, including its RAID controllers, host bus adapters, 6Gb/s SAS switches, software options and acceleration cards.
Since it offloaded its Engenio storage business to NetApp in March, LSI has been focused on driving its core business. In October it announced a definitive agreement to acquire SandForce, a provider of flash storage processors for flash and solid state drives (SSDs). The $350m deal will give LSI a strong footprint in flash storage processors at the heart of PCIe flash adapters and SSDs that compliment the rest of its OEM focused portfolio.
Behind the scenes, LSI has been strengthening distribution and logistics. The firm recently completed the consolidation of its products to a new European warehouse and distribution centre in Rotterdam in the Netherlands. In combination with a new agreement with Ingram Micro, the firm believes that its distributors across EMEA will be able to fulfil customer orders within two to three days of placement for any product, without the need to stock large inventories.
