Custom Storage Achieves IBM Premier Partner Status

Custom Storage, provider of data storage solutions that protect and manage organizations’ mission-critical data, has been awarded Premier partner status in the IBM PartnerWorld program.

By becoming an IBM Premier Storage Partner, Custom Storage has now reached the top partner level with IBM. Premier partners are required to demonstrate their commitment to IBM’s storage solutions by completing extensive training and achieving specific sales goals.

"We’ve been selling IBM storage products for over 3 years and wanted to deepen our commitment to IBM," said Larry Gentry, President of Custom Storage. "We’ve been having great success implementing IBM storage solutions with our customers, so for the first half of 2010, all of our salespeople and storage engineers have been completing the IBM Premier Storage Partner training. Now, everybody is certified so our entire team has become experts in IBM storage products like System Storage and System x."

"IBM’s PartnerWorld program is helping partners like Custom Storage build additional skills to sell smarter systems," noted Brett Flory, the Business Unit Executive for IBM’s Business Partner Enablement for Storage Systems. "The attainment of the Premier level within the PartnerWorld program is important to the success of our mutual customers. By investing in the multiple areas of growth to attain this high level of achievement, Custom Storage customers will benefit from our partner’s enhanced innovation, solutions expertise and consultative approach."

Custom Storage became an IBM partner in 2007 because IBM storage products such as System x servers and BladeCenter offer industry-leading virtualization capabilities and a broad portfolio of systems to deliver the flexibility customers need to manage growth and respond to changes in their business.

In addition to being an IBM Premier Partner, Custom Storage also partners with other leading technology vendors such as NetApp, Riverbed, VMware, CommVault and Symantec. This allows Custom Storage to deliver a complete array of data center solutions and services including data storage, disaster recovery, virtualization, back-up and recovery, WAN optimization, email archiving and data encryption.