Distributor Hammer Invests Into NetApp

Hammer
plc, the dedicated storage distributor, has grown its NetApp, Inc. offering by
expanding its dedicated NetApp team, boosting its ability to support Hammer
partners.

Hammer has invested into its NetApp business
development, pre- and post-sales and management team after experiencing high
demand for its value-added abilities.

In 2009, Hammer became a NetApp Silver
Partner Distributor, enabling it to register resellers to become Silver
Partners, specialising in mid-sized virtualization opportunities
which offered enterprise-level reliability at a cost-effective price-point,
and, due to growth, was granted distribution rights to the whole of
NetApp’s portfolio in 2011.

In the last three months, Hammer has
employed a NetApp Business Development Manager (BDM) for both the North and
South of England to work alongside an existing BDM who is aligned to the City
of London.

In conjunction with the sales investment, Hammer has also employed a
pre-sales configuration specialist and post-sales consultant, and its
professional services arm now offers NetApp Certified Data Centre
Administrators (NCDAs) and NetApp Certified Installation Engineers (NCIEs).

Hammer has been distributing FlexPod and
ExpressPod solutions since November 2012, securing its first £500,000
FlexPod deal at the end of last year. They are
pre-packaged and tested solution bundles integrating NetApp storage with Cisco
switches and servers into an infrastructure
solution for both the enterprise and SMB markets.

Andy Emmett, NetApp business manager at
Hammer, said: "Hammer has a
reputation for building solid relationships with its vendors and resellers, and
NetApp is no exception. We needed more resource to support our expanding
reseller community, and to ensure our customer offering is in line with the
level of demand we are experiencing. With this investment I can only see great
things ahead for our NetApp business and our resellers."

Pete Rawden, NetApp senior director, partners and pathways said: "Hammer has
shown great commitment to NetApp over the last four years, but Hammer’s recent
investment into the NetApp business further solidifies our joint value to the
NetApp partner base. Not only have they brought a wealth of NetApp channel
knowledge into the business, they have a focussed approach on growing their
current Platinum, Gold and Silver partners. I am looking forward to seeing
Hammer’s growth over the coming years."

Hammer adds value to the NetApp range by
training resellers on and off-site using its accredited technical
engineers, sales experts and demonstration equipment, and can also accompany
resellers to end-user sites for installation and training purposes. It also
holds many specialities in NetApp application and virtualization professional
services.