by Mike Kelson, Technical Director, Atlanta Technology — February 21, 2011
Selling Compellent has always been easy for us. My company, Atlanta Technology has been a certified reseller of Compellent for more than a year now, and during that time, we’ve grown our customer base by 150 percent.
Now, when I say Compellent is an easy sale, I mean it’s easy once we get past the “Who is Compellent?” conversation with our prospects. I think that’s a common challenge for many of Compellent’s resellers, just because Compellent isn’t as well known as some of the legacy storage providers.
Be that as it may, once we’re able to demonstrate the functionality of Fluid Data technology, using live demos and leveraging stories about our customers’ successful implementations, our prospects are sold. And rightfully so. At Atlanta Technology, we’ve begun offering cloud hosting services to complement our IT virtualisation practice. Our goal is to provide our customers with IT solutions that enable growth, add business value, and simplify overall IT management. We build those solutions around Compellent Fluid Data. So, that’s why Compellent is a go-to storage solution for us.
When I heard the news that Compellent had been acquired by Dell, one of my first thoughts was that the “Who is Compellent?” conversation will likely be eliminated. Dell has a powerful brand, and has a strong presence around the globe. Dell’s brand name and worldwide footprint will not only bring awareness to Compellent, but it’s also a solid validation of what the Compellent SAN can do for the enterprise. And, now, I can sell a complete Dell IT solution to my customers, storage included. I have an inkling that prospective customers will now be asking me about Compellent, before I even have to open my mouth. That’s exciting stuff. It makes my life easier, and hopefully, with the availability of more resources and heightened brand awareness, we’ll accelerate the growth of our customer base across the UK even faster than before.