THE relationship between Albany-based storage distributor Datastor and storage software vendor Veritas is all on again. The vendor has announced that Datastor will distribute a range of products specifically in the area of data protection, disaster recovery and storage management.
Although Datastor has continued to distribute Veritas product, around two years ago the Australia-based Veritas ended its 10-year New Zealand distribution deal with Datastor.
Datastor’s relationship dates back to when Arcada owned the product before it was sold to Seagate and finally Veritas. The end of the contract sent ripples through the channel, as many resellers couldn’t understand why Veritas had made the decision; crediting Datastor with outstanding service and
specialist knowledge around the Veritas offerings. Until then, Datastor shared the distribution with broad-based distributor Tech Pacific. Network and security distributor Express Data was appointed as the new distributor.
However, in announcing the latest move, Frank Zanotto, national partner manager for Veritas, says Datastor has an excellent local reputation and specialist knowledge of the New Zealand storage market.
He claims to be unaware of exactly what happened in 2002 between Veritas and Datastor, adding that in terms of the new arrangement “we looked at the local marketplace and looked at the market potential both in Australia and New Zealand and the growth expectations of what we want in both territories.
“And we wanted to bring on an organisation, or at least a partner like Datastor. They’ve got an excellent reputation, and have the skills on board to do our solutions set justice.”
While many vendors are consolidating their distributor channel, the new deal means Veritas will boast three distributors: Tech Pacific, Express Data and Datastor. “Last year Veritas acquired something like five new organisations so the depth and the breadth that we now have is second-to-none … With the solution sets we have … the opportunity does exist for all our distributors, partners and channel to really regain some good revenues and profits,” Zanotto says.
Dave Rosenberg, Datastor sales manager, says the appointment is a good marriage between a key storage vendor and specialist storage distributor.
When asked by Reseller News why Veritas appears to have had a change of heart, Rosenberg would offer no comment other than to say it was the vendor’s decision to end the 10-year relationship although the distributor continued to administer Veritas products.
