HPE and Supply Chain News | B2X Global

HPE & Nutanix Tap New Authorized Distributor to Solve Critical SSD Issue

Written by B2X Global | May 24, 2021

"The majority of the build was hard drives from HPE. Nutanix was there to license the storage. When we needed to add storage for the customer, it was a pretty easy build—until I got word that the SKUs were no longer valid. Given my involvement throughout the cycle, I knew we had a serious problem."

HEIDI REZAEI
COMMERCIAL ACCOUTN EXECUTIVE AT NUTANIX
 

THE CHALLENGE

Business-Critical Hardware Threatens Deal at Last Minute

About Nutanix
Nutanix is a hyper-converged infrastructure (HCI) software provider with a specialized HPE ProLiant DX Server Portfolio. The company partners with Computex, a solutions provider, and reseller, to deploy its solution to end-user customers.

When a national partner is trying to complete an order to get a year-end deal over the line, the last thing you need is a critical component that’s suddenly unavailable. That’s exactly what happened to Heidi Rezaei, Commercial Account Executive at Nutanix.

She was working with Computex, the reseller on the deal and one of Nutanix’s national partners. Their customer had previously deployed a large volume of HPE DX host machines and needed to quickly increase storage capacity. To get the upgrade complete, Heidi and the Computex team were tasked with helping to orchestrate the purchase of a large amount of 1.92TB SAS SSDs, which, at the last minute, became unavailable.

“The customer reached out needing 105 terabytes of storage with Nutanix licensing, so we thought it was a pretty easy build. Then I get an email the next day saying the drive order is going to be a problem. I didn’t really know where to turn.”

Both Heidi and her counterparts at Computex were frustrated, to say the least. Computex was on the front line with the customer and owned the outcome of this project. Heidi was on the hook because these drives had to be installed and functioning in order for Nutanix software to function, allowing for her side of the deal to close before the fiscal year-end.

“We were all chasing our tails to no avail. I was checking everywhere because without this additional storage, the customer ran a significant risk to their organization.”

 

THE SOLUTION

A Call to B2X Saves the Day

When Heidi contacted a member of HPE’s DX team to escalate the issue, he suggested that they reach out to B2X, who had assisted him in similar situations in the past. Here’s how B2X helped both Nutanix and Computex get the deal done.

 

IMMEDIATE RESPONSE SAVES THE DAY

“Within hours of getting the request,” says Heidi, “B2X had confirmed they could source the drives. We delivered a quote with full availability in two days.”

  • The only distributor with these specific SSDs in stock
  • Better price than previous deal registration discounts (extra profit for Computex)
  • Sense of relief and empowerment for Heidi

"It was a really quick process, within three days of connecting with B2X, the customer had the quote they needed to turn around a PO the same day.  Forty-eight hours later, the drives were out the door as promised.  That same day, Computex was able to order the Nutanix software to complete the deal."

HEIDI REZAEI
COMMERCIAL ACCOUNT EXECUTIVE AT NUTANIX

 

 

THE RESULTS

From "Not Available" to There in Two Days

When a national partner is trying to complete an order to get a year-end deal over the line, the last thing you need is a critical component that’s suddenly unavailable. That’s exactly what happened to Heidi Rezaei, Commercial Account Executive at Nutanix.

She was working with Computex, the reseller on the deal and one of Nutanix’s national partners. Their customer had previously deployed a large volume of HPE DX host machines and needed to quickly increase storage capacity. To get the upgrade complete, Heidi and the Computex team were tasked with helping to orchestrate the purchase of a large amount of 1.92TB SAS SSDs, which, at the last minute, became unavailable.

“The customer reached out needing 105 terabytes of storage with Nutanix licensing, so we thought it was a pretty easy build. Then I get an email the next day saying the drive order is going to be a problem. I didn’t really know where to turn.”

Both Heidi and her counterparts at Computex were frustrated, to say the least. Computex was on the front line with the customer and owned the outcome of this project. Heidi was on the hook because these drives had to be installed and functioning in order for Nutanix software to function, allowing for her side of the deal to close before the fiscal year-end.

“We were all chasing our tails to no avail. I was checking everywhere because without this additional storage, the customer ran a significant risk to their organization.”