Distribution Watch: Avnet, Arrow Electronics, Ingram Micro April 2015

Happy Friday, and thanks for stopping by for your weekly dose of IT distributor news. This week we have the latest and greatest from Avnet (AVT), Arrow Electronics (ARW) and Ingram Micro (IM).

Avnet: Fingerprint biometric identification technology and verification solutions provider BIO-key has entered into an Application Specific Licensing agreement with Avnet to integrate IBM middleware into BIO-key software. The agreement is expected to accelerate sales to customers in the Americas, EMEA and Asia Pacific, according to the announcement.

"BIO-key is enthused about our relationship with Avnet and our native integration with IBM's world-class authentication product portfolio," said Mike DePasquale, chairman and CEO of BIO-key, in a statement. "Avnet's ASL Program is an IBM channel, administered by Avnet, which is aimed at increasing the revenues and profits from middleware usage for Business Partners who provide value-added solutions and services to their customers.

"This underscores the strength of our software integration relationships and since we now have executives from Avnet and IBM who are dedicated to our mutual success we believe it will create revenue potential in multiple vertical markets," he added.

Arrow: Arrow announced a new North American distribution agreement with flash storage platform solutions vendor Violin Memory, which will allow it to provide Arrow resellers with access to the company’s flash storage platform solutions, product portfolio and enterprise data services. The deal is similar to a distribution agreement for Europe, the Middle East and Africa that was completed earlier this year.

The partnership will also allow Violin to utilize Arrow’s sales support and technical expertise to expand into the all-flash array market in North America, according to the announcement.

“Arrow’s expertise in the storage arena is synergistic with our go-to-market strategy, and their desire to push further into the all-flash marketplace with Violin’s Flash Storage Platform is an exciting proposition for both of us,” said Jeff Nollette, worldwide vice president of Channel Sales, Violin Memory. “The market opportunity for all-flash arrays in North America is white-hot today and growing larger by the month. We both expect to benefit from the marriage of our enterprise-hardened solutions and Arrow’s extensive expertise and market coverage in North America.”

Ingram Micro: Ingram Micro honored technology solution provider Varrow with its Emerging Reseller Award during the recent Ingram Micro Cloud Summit in Arizona last month.

Varrow was presented with the award for its strategic relationship with Ingram Micro and for growing its cloud service with the distributor upwards of 999 percent, according to the announcement.

“Varrow’s journey to the cloud has led us down a path where we have built a cloud solution to reduce complexity, improve resource utilization, and save money,” said Sean Scott, Varrow’s general manager of Cloud Services. “Throughout this journey we have come to realize that our customers are becoming a more efficient, agile and reliable IT organization.”

We hope you enjoyed catching up on this week’s greatest hits, and we’ll see you back here next week, same time, same place. Until then, keep on distributing.