Ingram Begins Selling 3PAR Storage to Channel Partners

Ingram Micro Inc. said that it will begin carrying 3PAR Inc.’s virtualization storage products, including the vendor’s T-Class and F-Class Storage Systems and software products.

In early September, Hewlett-Packard Co. won a bidding war for 3PAR, when the $200 million storage vendor accepted HP’s $2.4 billion offer and rejected a last ditch proposal from Dell Inc., its initial suitor.

“The availability of HP 3PAR technologies from Ingram Micro is significant news for the VAR community and opens up the playing field for channel partners addressing the storage needs of enterprise-class public and private cloud computing environments,” said Mark Maisano, Ingram Micro senior director, Advanced Computing Division and HP Business Unit.

Under terms of the distribution agreement, HP certified channel partners can source 3PAR’s T-Class and F-Class storage systems and software products from Ingram.

Ingram maintains an HP-dedicated business unit and last September initiated an Advanced Computing Division particularly for products such as 3PAR’s. The Advanced Computing unit, headed by Scott Zahl, Ingram vice president and general manager, focuses on infrastructure technology solutions including enterprise software, storage and virtualization.

The distributor said that it will offer certification, education, sales enablement and training on the 3PAR products.

“With the support of Ingram Micro’s HP Business Unit and new Advanced Computing Division, we are able to accelerate and execute against our converged infrastructure strategy,” said Frank Rauch, HP channels vice president.

“Together we offer HP channel partners the enablement resources, support and technology they need to build and grow a profitable practice around HP storage solutions,” he said.

Channel partner ISG Technology Inc., a nine-location HP channel partner based in Salina, KS, welcomed the addition of 3PAR to Ingram’s storage portfolio.

“HP 3PAR technology offers the efficiency and next-gen storage functionality we need to support our enterprise customers’ business needs and hybrid cloud environments,” said Eric Smith, ISG general manager.