Dell selects CMS Peripherals for storage channel push
Dell (NASDAQ:DELL) has added CMS Peripherals as its second distributor for its EqualLogic range of iSCSI-based storage, which it believes is now ripe for the channel to engage with the small and medium enterprise market. CMS will also provide a range of value-add services including training, marketing support and credit terms to help partners grow their businesses.
CMS joins Hammer, a distributor Dell inherited when it acquired EqualLogic in 2008. According to Paul Harrison, Dell’s UK channel manager, “[CMS]…will play a very similar role in terms of developing the market [to Hammer].”
Although CMS and Hammer will both target the 7000 potential Dell resellers, the bulk of current EqualLogic business is still handled directly by Dell though its 800 accredited partners and 44 certified partners. However, Harrison believes that growth in the SMB market is increasing: “iSCSI is currently around 12 percent of the market,” he explains. “The market is in hyper growth and could hit 20 percent this year – nobody knows at this point.”
Harrison points to the aggressive sub £12,000 price point of for an EqualLogic solution and its suitability to virtualisation as factors to help adoption, not just in the enterprise but in the mid market, supported by an expanded network of system integration partners.
CMS, which maintains an extensive data storage vendor roster including CommVault, DataDomain and Pillar, is encouraging its partners to align with it as a “named distributor on the Dell EqualLogic portfolio” to allow access Marketing Development Funds that will be accrued on behalf of channel partners. The MDF fund will be paid to partners at the beginning of each quarter for Dell-approved activities that drive further EqualLogic business.
Joe Fagan, group product marketing manager, CMS Peripherals adds, “At CMS we believe in offering best of breed technologies, and in the iSCSI market Dell EqualLogic has got a formidable reputation and is clearly the right choice to take to our partners.”
Dell is also announcing today that it has appointed a channel development manager covering Scotland and North East England who will work with PartnerDirect certified partners in this region to grow their Dell businesses and promote the Dell brand. The creation of the new role will complement Dell’s existing investment in support for partners through solutions consultants and telephone-based teams.
