Storage Q&A: Katana1

Which storage solutions do you deploy?

NetApp, followed by Nimble Storage. We’re NetApp’s largest NSW vendor and a gold partner. We’re also an AWS professional services partner and a reseller partner. We’ve had quite a focus on Amazon’s Glacier for long-term archive and tape replacement.

When did your company first get involved in storage?

When we started in April 2011. I had existing customer relationships that came with me when I left NetApp, and that was the bulk of the business in the first 12 months.

Which are your company’s storage credentials?

We’re a NetApp-certified professional services partner

Tell us about your distributors and distribution strategy?

Distribution Central.

What cool or interesting recent storage technology is occupying your thoughts?

A lot of our customers are interested in converged infrastructure and commodity platforms – the Nutanix and Simplivity type of offering. If a server breaks, you replace it with a new one. It’s how Google and Facebook have built their environments, so that’s interesting. Also, NetApp’s Cluster Mode. And the Puppet Labs model of IT systems automation. 

Can you tell us about a recent storage deployment you have done?

We refreshed the existing NetApp storage environment for a large financial services firm, moving it to Cluster Mode. We added Riverbed Whitewater to move their archive data to the long-term storage of Amazon’s Glacier. The Riverbed and AWS guys never met with the client, so our pre-sales guy invented and built-out a solution.

What is driving customers’ storage projects?

It’s about cutting costs and complexity. The benefit from the likes of Nimble, Pure Storage, Nutanix and Simplivity is simplicity. That drives people to go back to their incumbent and push for a reduction in their complexity. Our customers have a real appetite for storage that isn’t difficult to deploy and manage. 

Storage is ...?

Is always growing. I remember when I was at Sun and Jonathan Schwartz acquired StorageTek. He said, “I don’t know much about storage, but I know you need more each year”.