Promark/Ingram Micro to Distribute Some WD Products in USA

WD, a Western Digital Corp. announced an agreement with Promark Technology, Inc., a VAD and wholly-owned subsidiary of Ingram Micro, Inc., to resell its Sentinel ultra-compact storage and server solutions and its Arkeia business network backup solutions.

“Our goal is to provide value to SMBs with our WD Arkeia and WD Sentinel products and solutions. We believe that Promark, and their network of VARs and systems integrators, is the right distribution partner to help us achieve this in the US,” says Tom Gallivan, VP sales, WD, business storage solutions.

“This agreement with WD reinforces Promark’s market position as a highly-specialized storage distributor that is committed to expanding our vendors’ reach and enabling mutual channel partners to successfully market, sell and support the IT industry’s most in-demand storage solutions,” says Charles Bass, Promark’s VP of vendor relations. “We are pleased to expand our portfolio to include WD’s products and solutions and will work together to generate greater demand and deliver more value to our mutual channel partners.“

Arkeia offers network backup solutions – software, appliances and virtual appliances – designed to protect both physical and virtual environments. These solutions feature enterprise backup capabilities required by SMBs without the complexity that would require a team of software administrators to deploy.

Models range from compact, quiet and energy-efficient desktop devices to performance, field-upgradeable, rack-mounted units. With matched processor, memory and storage, combined with an optimized Linux OS, the appliances provide a platform for Arkeia software. This integration makes deployment rapid, operation reliable and management easy. The solutions safeguard more than 10,000 networks for customers in 100 countries.

The Sentinel storage appliances provide reliable operation at an affordable price. The Sentinel X-Series network storage servers combine enterprise HDDs, Atom processors and the Microsoft Storage Server OS. The WD Sentinel S-Series compact storage plus servers combine enterprise HDDs, Xeon processors with Windows Server 2012 R2 Essentials. These servers are for small businesses and workgroups of larger companies that are looking for a compact storage solution integrating iSCSI SAN, NAS and server-based backup technology. These solutions have been deployed in over 20,000 businesses worldwide.

As part of its new alliance with Promark, WD will enhance its WD Business Storage Partnership program by adding a partner portal that will support partner marketing efforts, deal registration and computer based training. The storage company will also leverage Promark’s in-house resources to train and certify partners on the Arkeia and Sentinel solutions and will encourage partners to take advantage of these new programs.