Compellent Adds European Customers, International Managing Director to Global All-Channel Sales NetworkJune 5, 2007
Completes Move into New "Green" Headquarters Building
Eden Prairie, Minn., June 5, 2007 — Compellent today announced it is expanding global operations by naming Andy Hardy as managing director of international sales based in the United Kingdom.
The new appointment and completion of the move to a new headquarters building here in Eden Prairie allow Compellent to enhance worldwide sales, logistics and technical support for the company's all-channel sales network.
Compellent International, working with partners such as Fordway and 24Solutions, has already supported the implementation of Storage Center SANs in 13 countries across Europe, Australia and Asia. Two customers, gm2 Logistics, a warehousing and services provider for one of the top paper merchants in the UK and Ireland, and the Norwegian Postal and Telecommunications Authority, highlighted the ease of use and virtualization benefits of their Compellent SANs at the C-Drive Technology Summit also held today in Minnetonka, Minn., near Minneapolis.
"Midsize and enterprise customers continue to consider Compellent's Storage Center SAN over legacy systems," said Phil Soran, chief executive officer and president. "We're committed to helping end-users worldwide lower their storage expenditures and operating expenses and we'll continue to team with our growing all-channel network to drive this strategy."
European Companies Showcase Compellent Solutions at C-Drive Technology Summit
Headquartered outside London, gm2 Logistics, which produced £300 million ($600 million) in revenues last year, reduced the size of its data center by about one-third. The IT department consolidated its servers using VMware technology to create virtual machines and virtualized its data storage using the Compellent SAN.
"Our growing IT needs demanded a swift change from direct attached storage to centralized storage in a completely virtualized environment" said John Boyd, IT manager for gm2 Logistics. "With Compellent we're able to easily manage our data and connect virtual server systems to the SAN for critical logistics applications for our operations in 20 locations across the UK."
The Postal and Telecommunications Authority, Norway's equivalent to the Federal Communications Commission, likewise found it a straightforward process to connect virtual systems to its Compellent SAN and handle every day tasks, without requiring additional staffing.
"We're a small department responsible for the entire IT infrastructure, so we can't afford to spend much time managing our storage," said Henrik Kram, IT manager for the Authority. "The Compellent SAN is so easy to administer, I haven't even bothered to read the user manual."
Expanding Compellent International
Compellent's appointment of Hardy strengthens the existing European sales operations, which the company first opened in Amsterdam in April 2005.
As international managing director, Hardy is responsible for growing Compellent's network of business partners outside North America, based in Buckinghamshire, England. With more than 25 years global experience in technology, he joined Compellent after 12 years at venture capital firm Nomura Group, most recently as a specialist in US-based technology companies. Prior to Nomura Group, Hardy held sales, product marketing and service management positions in Itochu of Japan and Basys (now Avid) in London. He was trained in the Royal Australian Air Force as an electronics engineer.
Compellent will mark its transition to a new, environmentally friendly global headquarters building with an invitation-only "open house" the evening of Wednesday, June 6, the second day of the C-Drive event. The headquarters building, leased from Liberty Property Trust, includes sustainable features that make it eligible for Leadership in Energy & Environmental Design (LEED) Certification from the U.S. Green Building Council, including drip irrigation systems for landscaping that reduce water consumption by 40 percent, energy-efficient HVAC equipment with special filters and carbon dioxide monitors and low- emission paints and adhesives.
On June 7 and 8, Compellent will host 140 international representatives of its business partners at the C-Drive Partner Summit, which will include sales and technical training sessions.
About Compellent
Compellent delivers affordable, modular storage solutions exclusively through business partners that provide companies of all sizes enterprise storage capabilities without big system costs or complexities. For more information, visit http://www.compellent.com.
Contact Information: Liem Nguyen
Compellent Technologies
952-294-2851
lnguyen@compellent.com Rob Davis
Haberman & Associates
612-338-3900
rob@habermaninc.com