Pluto unveils ME expansion plans

Pluto, a retail distributor in the Middle East, has revealed its expansion plan for the region along with a new brand identity, says Khaleej Times.

Pluto will act as the parent company for subsidiaries that include Pluto Channel and Pluto Games. Coinciding with the brand launch, Pluto also says it has been appointed as the master distributor of AVG Technologies in the Middle East and North Africa region.

Pluto expects a 30% growth in the Middle East this year despite economic slowdown across the world, its MD Rami El Hussein told Khaleej Times.

Mobility specialist SIT Distribution, exclusive distribution partner for HTC within the GCC and Levant region, has opened an HTC service centre in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, reports Channel EMEA.

The new facility, which the two companies refer to as a 'care centre', aims to provide a rapid and high quality after-sales service to customers.

“It is a natural step for SIT Distribution to open the HTC Care Centre,” said Adnan Al-Falah, chairman at SIT Distribution. “We are working towards making the centre customer-centric.”

Fujitsu has chosen STEC as its solid-state drive (SSD) supplier, leaving NetApp the only enterprise storage array supplier not dealing with the SSD vendor, states The Register.

The company will deploy STEC's Zeus-Iops drives in its Eternus storage arrays, replacing fibre channel hard drives.

STEC said it had worked with Fujitsu to tailor a product configuration for it. Fujitsu's SVP for storage systems, Tetsoro Kudo, said in a statement: "STEC's cutting-edge technology on Fujitsu systems renders an exceptional value proposition for the data centre of today and beyond."

Small and medium-sized business opportunities abound in the current economic climate, but businesses have to acclimatise themselves to a period of darkness, says IDC, according to Reseller News.

In his introduction to IDC Directions, country manager Ullrich Loeffler explains the research firm will be “delivering Directions as a service” this year. It's the first time the event has been presented exclusively in the form of a Webinar.

Needless to say, a recurring theme is the global economic situation. The presenters conclude their approximately 10-minute presentations with essential guidelines, most involving vendors and channel partners adapting their offerings to help customers cut costs.