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Tech Data signs data centre kit slinger Quanta in big local sales deal

Far Eastern ODMs marching to Europe, rub belly, eyes major brands' lunch

Mega hardware vendors beware: the big gun Taiwanese contract manufacturers are stepping from out of the shadows to build local sales channels for their own branded hyper-scale bit barn gear.

Tech Data, the world’s second largest IT distie, has inked a deal with Quanta Cloud Technology to sell servers, storage, network switches and integrated rack systems for “cloud data centres”.

The sales charter apparently gives it access to “flexible and scalable” stuff that will let European resellers and SI customers “diversify” beyond the traditional hardware vendors, said TD.

The ODMs, or contract manufacturers, have benefited from demand from the biggest services providers that are building out their server estate, including the likes of Facebook and Google.

The threat forced Hewlett Packard Enterprise to set up a joint venture with Foxconn to build to order huge volumes of servers at price points the rest of its portfolio couldn’t reach.

The impact is felt more acutely by the major server, networking and storage brands in the US – where most of these service providers are building their data centres. But ODMs are taking ground in the UK and across Europe too, albeit from a relatively small base.

One major advantage the HPs and Dells of this world had over the likes of Quanta, Compel and Wistron was an established network of third party sellers spread across the planet.

Tech Data is not Quanta Cloud Tech’s first UK channel signing – it works with Hammer and system integrator Vesper Technologies – but it is certainly the largest.

Obviously Tech Data has squared the appointment with others in its portfolio including HPE, Dell, Lenovo, Cisco, EMC et al. It is an independent business but won’t want to upset the established order. ®

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