German-HQ-ed distributor Stordis, which has specialised in storage and high performance networks, says it wants to change direction and move to drive open networking. Moving forward, the company will concentrate on technologies built using open standards and open source technology, while working together with new vendors in bare-metal switching and software defined networking (SDN). Stordis will be announcing several, new, pan-European distribution deals in the coming months, it says.
“Networking and storage is about to be hit by a major force. It’s equivalent to when Linux smashed the proprietary server-hardware business 15-20 years ago,” comments Alexander Jeffries, Stordis CEO. “Everything is going open and, in networking, it’s happening fast. Customers are already asking about: Open vSwitch, OpenFlow, OpenDaylight, OpenStack storage and The Open Compute Project. The networking channel needs to react or die.”
Its head office and research centre is located in Stuttgart, Germany, with additional sales offices in London and Paris. Its brands include mostly specialist vendors, but also Emulex, Western Digital and NetApp.
IDC has recently forecast dramatic growth for networking transformation technologies, predicting the SDN market will be worth $12.5Bn by 2020. Quoted at a recent event, Brad Casemore Director, Datacenter Networking, IDC said: “Open source is not just at the bottom of the networking stack, it now goes from layer 2 all the way up to network and security services. It's a significant fact in the market landscape and vendors have to give it due consideration.”
Stordis is researching the most promising new open technologies, creating a dedicated new lab space for testing new hardware and software solutions and developing complete systems tailored to the needs of specific markets, it says.
“The pace of innovation around open technology demands constant research, hands on experience and expertise,” explains Jeffries. “We see it being our role as distributor to build a reliable source for this type of knowledge, available to resellers and end-users across Europe.”
Stordis is now finalising a series of market-ready solutions that will initially target: media and broadcast, financial trading, datacentres and hosting providers, and security. “There is a fear amongst many in the channel that open technology means low margin, commoditised hardware. The end customer is certainly getting a lot more for their money,” continues Jeffries. “But it is overpriced vendors who stand to lose out. For the channel, there is just as much margin available in adding value and expertise to open solutions.”
Stordis is also convinced that lower cost open technology will help drive a faster cycle of innovation and adoption in the networking market. Later this year, the company is hoping to be the first to market with a working, end-to-end solution for 100GbE. “This is not like the shift to 10GbE, where people needed convincing. We have customers testing equipment and lined-up, ready to buy,” Jeffries explains. “Some vendors have already made their usual vaporware announcements around 100GbE, but I have yet to hear of a full end-to-end solution available for delivery. We are confident that technologies built on open networking standards will deliver the first, widely-available, working solution. Open, collaborative technologies are not just catching up, they are leading the way.”