Distribution works well for supplier as larger competitors lose their way
Spectra Logic, the storage and data specialist now closing out is 2017 numbers and planning for 2018 says that things have worked out quite well, particularly using distribution.
Good results seem to have come in from Europe and the UK in particular, says Brian Grainger, CSO of Spectra Logic. “Q2 in was spectacular in EMEA,” he reports.
“My push with the distribution model worked and the successes have been demonstrated using using two distributors: Global Distribution and Hammer as a specialist. Both worked well with converged systems, NAS and libraries. In Europe there were certain areas doing well depending on the local economies – we had strong UK sales, good in Germany and France, and showed growth in southern Europe.”
The media and entertainment businesses have been very good, it seems, based on a longer term relationship with those markets, but there are also some high performance computing wins which tend to have longer sales cycles.
“General IT is picking up steam and this is where distribution has helped with the wider range of customers. The lower and mid-range business has moved ahead primarily because of the two channels,” he says. ” We will have new products in converged systems and NAS and we have a solid roadmap – we will support the channels we have. So it is just a matter of finding and closing the deals. “
With disruption among the larger companies such Dell EMC and HP, creating some uncertainties in the market, even with Oracle’s longer term strategy being uncertain, customers are holding back, he thinks. “HP and iBM are doing better but there has been job cuts and consolidation within them and they have not been executing as well as they should.”
This means the larger enterprise customers have held back on technology refreshes, so this has help back the market as a whole. And competition? There are a lot of storage start-ups, especially new cybersecurity companies, but “In the archive space where we are focused it is relatively stable – few new initiatives, ” he says. “The flash companies tend to be partners of ours in any case”
A pretext to put off decisions may be a micro effect, however, he says. GDPR is the biggest topic and will definitely impact the customers’ businesses and how they properly conduct things. “From a technical standpoint there is not a lot to be focused on– my focus is on the data security and it is more of an education and dealing with the uncertainty of impact of the GDPR”.
This is just another effect which could be holding back the business as an era of uncertainty.
