Avnet Enterprise Solutions Opens Storage Centers

The Tempe, Ariz.-based solution provider, a division of Avnet, said the new centers in Englewood, Colo., and Earth City, Mo., are the distributor's second and third facilities to include networked storage, disaster-recovery, backup and restore, and business-continuity solutions.

The first center was opened in Torrance, Calif., in 2002 and has been used by almost 100 companies, according to Avnet, which has invested more than $1 million of equipment in the centers.

Avnet Enterprise Solutions plans to demonstrate a live disaster-recovery solution with multistate data backup and replication at the centers' grand opening ceremonies on May 20. Vendors with equipment in the centers include Hewlett-Packard, Brocade, Cisco Systems, Veritas Software and Microsoft, Avnet said.

"Continuous access to information is not a 'nice to have.' It's a 'must have,' " said Mark Gonzalez, vice president of Americas storage network solutions at Hewlett-Packard, in a statement. "The Avnet Storage Expertise Centers are much more than just a show of hardware, or even software. They involve significant intellectual capital that offers customers a real opportunity to kick the tires and drive."