Tintri appoints Avnet just weeks after signing Obs Crest

Virtualised storage vendor Tintri has signed a distribution agreement with Avnet Technology Services to cover Australia and New Zealand.

Tintri had already secured the services of boutique distie Observatory Crest in July, and the vendor's Asia-Pacific vice president Peter Molloy confirmed to CRN that Avnet would provide an additional channel.

Observatory Crest announced last week that it will be acquired by US giant Arrow Electronics.

"We signed with Avnet with an eye on their pan-Asia capability," Molloy told CRN. "We obviously weren't aware that the Observatory Crest and Arrow deal was coming.

"The Arrow acquisition is potentially good for us, depending on how well it goes for Observatory Crest."

Molloy said that Avnet's concentration on providing cloud services to value-added resellers was a good fit for the vendor, with the Australian channel moving rapidly to as-a-service models.

Darren Adams, ANZ general manager of Avnet, agreed: "We will focus the Tintri solution toward our Avnet cloud service offerings and in particular we will offer white labelled cloud and managed services."

Molloy also told CRN that Avnet's existing relationships with Tintri's own technology partners – such as VMware, Citrix and Veeam – was a differentiator compared with the more specialised channel offered by Observatory Crest.

Avnet racked up US$25.5 billion of revenue globally last year, employing more than 18,000 employees.

Tintri produces storage for virtual environments, which it calls "application-aware". Molloy said traditional storage consisting of "LUNs and volumes" is "architecture 20 years overdue for a shakeup".