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Open Storage: The sum of the parts

Avnet Technology Solutions is a leading distributor of networked enterprise storage solutions.  Avnet's strengths come from a portfolio of carefully selected Vendor Partners, a highly successful and experienced team of storage professionals and a close trusted advisor relationship with many of Europe's most respected storage Business Partners.  At the heart of Avnet's capabilities are enterprise-class storage solutions. 

Enterprise-class storage and networking  

Mark Walker, EMEA Director Storage Product Business Group at Avnet Technology Solutions explains, "With the current explosion in storage requirements, the channel will find that end user customers demand intelligent management and protection of their information, not just the desire to throw more capacity at the problem of rapidly growing data.  Business Partners will need to provide enterprise-class storage solutions and as such should look for a distributor able to provide ‘cradle to grave' support.  With Avnet's exceptional customer service and technical experience we take the pain, complexity and risk out of delivering enterprise solutions, leaving Business Partners to focus on their core business - meeting the needs of end user customers."

Taking an intelligent approach to data storage

Taking an intelligent approach to data storage is central to the success of enterprise-class storage solutions.  Intelligent data storage considers aspects such as where data resides, how it is stored, how it moves around, how it is managed, what use is made of it and most importantly how it is protected.  Avnet's approach to intelligent data storage has been classified into four branches:

Data storage - where data resides and establishing the specific needs of every customer in terms of:

• Storage Area Networks (SAN)
• Network Attached Storage (NAS)
• Backup
• Archive

Data connectivity - infrastructure providing access to data.  What standards to adopt and which technology to use:

• Fibre Channel
• iSCSI
• Infiniband
• 10GB Ethernet
• FCoE (Fibre Channel over Ethernet)

Data management - technologies and solutions to deliver cost effective and efficient management of stored data. Data management includes:

• Storage virtualisation
• File Area Networks (FAN)
• Content Addressed Storage (CAS)
• Backup verification
• De-duplication
• Migration
• Storage policy and firewall

Data security - an important and often overlooked final component of any intelligent data storage solutions approach.  Security of data needs to be considered, while data is both at rest and in transit:

• Encryption - data at rest and in transit
• Backup management
• Backup verification
• Data replication

Using this model, Avnet's sales and technical teams make it easy and painless for Business Partners to sell sophisticated enterprise storage solutions to their customers.

Vendors for enterprise-class storage and networking

Avnet has put together a range of solutions from some of the world's top storage vendors that can be configured, adapted and integrated by its Business Partners to deliver optimum performance, reliability and scalability to build enterprise-class storage solutions. 

EMC - Unifying storage to deliver business solutions
EMC focus on delivering 'Unified Storage‘ that consolidates their market leading CLARiiON and Celerra products into a single multiprotocol array, enabling users to have a pool of storage that can be managed at a single point.  When you add onto this a suite of software solutions that address compliance, business continuity, email management, records management, backup, recovery and archiving issues there is just about no information management requirement that Avnet Business Partners cannot address. 

CommVault Simpana - Total information management
CommVault's groundbreaking Simpana software is a single product with application modules for data protection, archive, replication, resource management and search, all on a single code base and platform.  Simpana changes the way information is protected, archived, managed and accessed.  CommVault allows the channel to offer the whole management environment in one product.

Emulex - The fabric of storage solutions
Emulex makes a wide range of enterprise-class products including hubs, Fibre Channel switch products and Host Bus Adapters, enabling organisations to intelligently connect storage, servers and networks.  These innovative solutions provide the performance, interoperability and scalability that enable the channel to deliver proven storage connectivity .

Brocade - Optimising the storage infrastructure
The Brocade family of Storage Area Network (SAN) infrastructure solutions includes industry- leading switches, directors, routers, embedded switches for blade servers and fabric-based application solutions, as well as management applications and utilities to centralise data management. 

Cisco - Storage networking solutions for lower total cost of ownership
Storage Networking is central to Cisco Data Center storage solutions which provide a platform for IT departments to achieve lower total cost of ownership (TCO), enhanced resilience and greater agility.  Cisco and Avnet together have the products and skills needed to help Business Partners meet rapidly changing storage networking demands.

QLogic - End to end Storage Area Network (SAN) components
QLogic delivers a broad and diverse portfolio of market leading products that includes Fibre Channel adapters, blade server embedded Fibre Channel switches, Fibre Channel stackable switches, iSCSI adapters and iSCSI routers.  QLogic is also a technology leader and supplier of Infiniband switching and Host Channel Adapter equipment for the High Performance Computing (HPC) market.

Getting it right first time

Having the right portfolio from carefully selected vendors is just the start.  Identifying the right product combinations to create the right solution and delivering that solution right first time is what counts. 

Joe Tucci, EMC's Chief Executive Officer was recently quoted in SNS Europe (Oct 08) as saying, "Digital information growth is exploding globally on a massive scale, affecting consumers, business and organisations of all sizes.  The research company IDC predicts that by 2010, while 70% of the digital information worldwide will be created by individuals, 85% of it will become the responsibility of organisations."

As this responsibility increases organisations will look to their trusted advisors and Business Partners to help them manage their mountains of data.  As such Business Partners will need to get their proposed solutions right and right first time.

Avnet adds value

Avnet understands this need to get it right first time and has proven processes to support its Business Partners and knowledgeable people able to provide accurate quotations, pre-sales assistance and project delivery.  

Mark Walker continued, "We understand that Business Partners need to feel confident in the support we have in place when selling complex storage solutions.  For them to get it right first time Avnet Technology Solutions has a whole series of support functions available"

• Marketing - working as an extension to a Business Partner's existing marketing function or as a temporary marketing department Avnet will help generate opportunities via all areas of the marketing mix
• Pre-sales and business development - Business Partners can take advantage of experienced, fully vendor accredited storage experts to provide advice and guidance with:

• Product selection
• Specification
• Compatibility
• Interoperability
• Design

• Demonstration facilities - with access to the £multi-million freshly updated customer demonstration facility THE [resource] in Avnet's UK headquarters in Bracknell, plus an additional venue in Warrington in the North of England, Business Partners can organise demonstrations and proof of concept sessions for customers. Alternatively loan equipment can be arranged and full configuration support is always available
• Partnering - where appropriate, Business Partners can tap into Avnet's extensive network of Partners to find organisations with skills outside their core competency
• Training - Avnet provides authorised Vendor Partner training and technical workshops - delivered by engineers, to focus on practical skills required for installation, configuration, trouble shooting and maintenance tasks. Bespoke independent training can also be designed to meet a Business Partner's specific needs
• Financial services - Avnet offers a range of financial packages to help Business Partners explore ways of lowering the cost of financing large deals
• Logistics - world class logistics lowers costs and offers flexible ways to make certain Avnet delivers solutions on time. This way Business Partners can be confident the delivery promises they make to their customers are honoured and that their reputations are kept intact
• Integration and implementation services - a range of services Business Partners can call upon at any time, making certain they can deliver on any IT challenge they face without needing to make large resource investments
• Post-sales - Avnet is always on hand to help with post-sales installation and operational queries, warranty questions and health checks. A major benefit of working with Avnet is its ability to provide independent advice within a multi-vendor environment
• Extended maintenance and warranty - this is an excellent way for Business Partners to give their customers worry free assurance that in an unlikely event of a failure, downtime is minimised.

Making business easy

At the heart of Avnet's proposition to Business Partners is support at all stages of the sales cycle and subsequent post-sales activity.  Mike Darbyshire, Sales Manager at Avnet said, "Our goal is to provide exemplary customer service from marketing and sales through to installation and service while making it easy to do business with Avnet.  We will take ownership in all areas and work with our Business Partners to ensure accurate and prompt answers and delivery of solutions."

The sum of the parts

Mark Walker concluded, "Our aim as a trusted advisor for enterprise-class storage solutions is for our Business Partners to have happy end user customers and to make a profit, while distributing product for our Vendor Partners.  By matching our industry expertise and technical excellence with customer service and enthusiasm, Avnet can become a valuable extension of our Partners' capability to deliver storage solutions."