Peter Grogan and Horatio Marx (HX Systems) flank Christian Mack (ACA Pacific)
HX Systems has inked an Asia-Pacific distribution deal with ACA Pacific covering the Domotz remote network monitoring and management system.
"We've signed a very tight relationship agreement with ACA Pacific," said Peter Grogan, HX Systems director of business development and strategy.
"The relationship is long-term, almost exclusive, where we are going to be pushing into the market, not only with the Domotz product but also with the Fingbox product and several others we'll be bringing to market."
Founded in 2015, US-based Domotz bills itself as offering "remote network management for an IoT world".
As well as remote network management, it offers monitoring, team management and development capabilities and claims 3000 clients including the BBC, US fast food network Krystal and medical supplies company McKesson.
HX Systems proprietor Horatio Marx said his company has a tight relationship with Domotz' and Fing and is the Asia-Pacific exclusive distributor, effectively acting as the vendor in the new deal. Fingbox is a network security and parental control product aimed at home users.
ACA Pacific offers thousands of resellers across the region, Grogan said. The deal will help the partners develop relationships with a broad range of those as well as potential end-user customers.
New Zealand-based HX Systems is already working with Singtel as does ACA Pacific, Grogan said.
The distribution deal is expected to start delivering in the first and second quarters of 2019, especially after a rack-mounted version of the Domotz system comes to market. That would help open up the mid to large data centre market for development, Grogan said.
Christian Mack, channel sales director of ACA Pacific in New Zealand, said ACA has 30-odd years experience in storage but with the changing market space was looking at different kinds of vendors.
"We like to partner with, not the mainstream vendors - we're not looking for the Dells, the Lenovos of the world because they are low margin, hard work," Mack said. "We are looking for the vendors we can form a relationship with. We are very close with Quantum, Kodak Alaris and now with HX as well."
Mack said the initial Domotz deal would target pretty much anything in the IoT area, network management through to smart devices. The deal would diversify ACA's offering and build a future relationship with HX Systems.
Grogan said a joint roadshow across the Asia-Pacific region was expected to kick off in late January.
The deal came about as a result of a LinkedIn contact between Grogan and Mack in August.
"I had a look and thought there was potential there," Mack said. "A personal passion of mine has been the Internet of Things, because it's an absolute mess at the moment. If someone can unify it, there is money to be made."
Australia-based ACA Pacific launched in New Zealand in August, shortly after HX Systems opened shop after operating in Australia for three years.
Marx said the new rack-mount version of Domotz will also include the ability to deploy a Fingbox to track MAC addresses within the data centre, effectively setting up a "digital fence" to track who walks in and out in real time.
