Synnex Eyes IBM, HP Unix Server Authorizations

Synnex is eyeing authorization to distribute mid-range UNIX server products from both IBM and Hewlett-Packard in an effort to bolster its enterprise business.

Harry Edwards, Synnex's senior vice president, enterprise business said at the distributor's annual VAR conference in Greenville, S.C. that both IBM's pSeries and HP's line of Business Critical Systems (BCS) are "products of interest to us." Edwards noted that Synnex's Technology Solutions Division (TSD) is bent on bringing enterprise class solutions to the SMB market and said that Synnex can "go into new markets and bring significant value-add" to IBM and HP.

John Paget, Synnex's TSD president noted that within the past year the distributor added HP's EVA enterprise storage line and that the company has had discussions with the vendor regarding BCS products. "HP has been absolutely wonderful, but IBM is a tougher sell," he said.

He said that there was no pending distribution pact with either vendor for the enterprise servers, but noted that Synnex would pursue only incremental business and not shift customers from IBM's or HP's existing value-added distributors if it wins authorization for the mid-range servers.

John Thompson, HP's vice president and general manager, Solution Partners Organization, Americas, said that as Synnex or any other HP distributor builds up its capabilities, the vendor re-evaluates authorizations for the organization. While he said HP has not yet authorized Synnex for BCS products, "The ball is in their court," he said in terms of building up marketing and technical support for the products.IBM executives were unavailable for comment late Thursday.