3PAR Expands in Europe

LONDON -- 3PAR, the leading global provider of utility storage, announced today that over the past twelve months it has doubled the size of its European team from 14 to 30 employees to enhance its focus within Europe. 3PAR also announced the opening of an engineering center in Belfast, Northern Ireland, and the appointment of its European Marketing Director.

Since entering Europe, 3PAR has steadily expanded operations, having introduced Utility Storage in the U.K., Germany, Italy, Switzerland, Belgium, Netherlands, and Poland. Leading European businesses such as the Carphone Warehouse, Sunlight Services, WPP Research International, Brevan Howard, Banca Intesa in London, and NASK (the Polish national registry of Internet names in the com.pl domain) have all chosen 3PAR Utility Storage. As a pioneer of thin provisioning and thin technologies and an innovator of green storage, 3PAR’s global deployments throughout the US, Europe, and Asia-Pacific have demonstrated the demand for reduced complexity, improved efficiency, and environmental responsibility within datacenters around the world.

3PAR’s new research and development center in Belfast, an extension of its global engineering team, was opened with financial support from Invest Northern Ireland. 3PAR has staffed the center with software development and test engineers and has undertaken a recruitment campaign to attract talented individuals to work as an extension of the core engineering team currently headquartered in Fremont, California.

3PAR’s decision to extend its global engineering team to Northern Ireland was based in part on its belief that a very qualified talent pool is nurtured every year by the country’s universities and institutes, such as the Northern Ireland Technology Centre (NITC) at Queen's University Belfast. Also, compared to many other countries in Asia and Eastern Europe, the local workforce in Northern Ireland boasts a relatively lower turnover rate and mastery of English as a native language. In addition, the smaller time difference between Northern Ireland and the US makes travels and communication much easier.

As part of its European expansion, 3PAR recently appointed Jean-Jacques Effosse to the position of EMEA Marketing Director. Effosse brings to 3PAR twenty years of experience in the IT industry. Prior to joining 3PAR, Effosse was EMEA Channel Director at McDATA. Effosse was also previously responsible for marketing in Southern Europe and Latin America for Brocade. He began his career with ten years at IBM, first in a pre-sales role and then later as a sales engineer. Effosse holds a mechanical engineering degree from the Ecole Nationale Supérieure d'Arts et Métiers (ENSAM) in Paris."Alongside mature markets such as the U.K., France, and Germany, Europe today still counts a wealth of countries where organizations have only just started deploying corporate storage infrastructures, and this makes it a very attractive market," said Claus Egge, Research Director, EMEA Storage Systems Research at IDC. "However, it is critical for technology vendors to be aware of the local end-user needs, business customs, and cultural differences if they are to succeed when expanding into these countries. A calculated strategy such as 3PAR’s often has higher chances of success in the long term than a hasty plan with more flash than substance."

3PAR Inc.