ENGINEERING

Furthers Penetration Into UK and Irish Markets

Dot Hill Systems Corp. (Nasdaq:HILL), a leading provider of SAN storage solutions, signed a distribution agreement with CMS Distribution. CMS is the largest independent distributor of IT data storage products and solutions in the UK and Ireland. Founded in London in 1988, CMS Distribution employs around 200 people working out of its offices in London, Harrogate and Kiltimagh, Co Mayo in Ireland.

The agreement is the second of its kind for Dot Hill in this region, as the storage vendor seeks to expand its offerings to the midrange market. The agreement is expected to enhance Dot Hill's ability to reach new resellers and, ultimately, grow its customer base within the region. Dot Hill delivers both entry and midrange enterprise storage such as the AssuredSAN Pro 5000 real-time auto-tiering array to the CMS Distribution portfolio; the relationship will complement the distributor's existing product line and increase its available customer base.

Warren Reid, director of marketing, EMEA at Dot Hill, commented, "This agreement will make the entire range of Dot Hill's products available through CMS as we bring both cost effective and high-performance automated-tiered storage to enterprise customers across the UK and Ireland. We were particularly keen to work with CMS because of its storage-centric nature, wide distribution network and solid reputation."

Dot Hill has also made enhancements to its Connections Partner Program primarily focused on providing field resources, value-add programs and solution-based sales tools to its most committed channel partners. It also rewards resellers and distributors that have demonstrated their loyalty by giving them access to additional privileges such as amplified professional service offerings, demand-generation toolkits, marketing support and margin protection. Alongside these additions are changes designed to make it easier for all channel partners to do business with Dot Hill such as streamlined channel pricing, as well as improved access to technical support and services.

Sven Mahon-Daly, Enterprise Category Manager at CMS Distribution, said: "In becoming a distributor for Dot Hill Systems we have significantly strengthened our storage portfolio given Dot Hill's solid storage industry heritage and reputation for quality. I believe our resellers will benefit from innovative storage technology to address customers across the entry to midrange markets."