First Distribution, South Africa's leading distributor for datacentre, enterprise and cloud solutions, today announced that it has been appointed as the distributor for Hitachi Data Systems (HDS) for South Africa and the SADC region.

This brings to three, the number of major distribution agreements (the others being Veritas and Microsoft CSP) signed by the distributor within the last month, demonstrating the unique value that First Distribution brings to its vendors.

HDS is a wholly owned subsidiary of the Hitachi Group and provides modular mid-range to high-end storage systems, software and services, in order to help companies manage disparate data, turning them into business-critical information.

HDS' products and solutions extend into the areas of cloud, big data analytics, converged infrastructure, storage, servers, data protection, and application and industry solutions.

In reshaping how business and society work together, HDS is part of Thomson Reuters ‘Top 100 Global Innovators' and commits 4 900 employees, and more than US$2.8 billion annually to research and development in order to develop solutions to customers' challenges.

As is the case with most of First Distribution's key vendors, the distributor will be creating a specialised and dedicated HDS team to manage the business, but will also operate a shared sales model outside of the key First Distribution and HDS business partners' ecosystems.

First Distribution General Manager, Tony Abrahall stated: "I'm very pleased that, following an intensive RFP process, First Distribution has been awarded distribution rights for Hitachi Data Systems, not only in South Africa, but for the SADC region as well. It's been a fantastic month for First Distribution in terms of signing new vendor agreements as we broaden our datacentre and cloud offerings, and I believe this not only sends a strong signal to the channel regarding the value which First Distribution can bring to any vendor's distribution strategy, but now positions us as the premier distributor for Information Management and Data Storage solutions. HDS is yet another premier technology company with whom we're proud to be associated, as we continue our strategy to represent only the best global premium brands."

Vic Booysen, Channel Director for HDS Sub-Saharan Africa, said: "After an extensive process we have aligned ourselves with one of the channel's strongest local distributors to assist us in growing our installed base and market share throughout the region. Scalability in the channel is crucial and we specifically looked for innovative and differentiated distribution characteristics from our partners. As Cloud and digital transformation becomes paramount to growing today's business environment, we believe First Distribution is the right partner to help us enable customers with the right solutions."

For more information on First Distribution's range of Hitachi Data Systems (HDS) modular mid-range and high-end storage systems, software and services, please contact Tony Abrahall on (011) 540 2640 / (021) 529 5555 or email tony@firstdistribution.co.za