Avnet will be the sole distributor of EMC's new hyper-converged appliance, VSPEX Blue, when it launches here, the company has confirmed.

However, the company apparently hasn't ruled out other local distributors, with a company spokesperson saying they would keep The Channel posted ‘going forward and when others are confirmed'.

The hyper-converged infrastructure appliance integrates VMware's EVO: Rail software with EMC management software and is the first offering to come out of EMC's converged infrastructure unit following last week's merger of the VCE and VSPEX businesses.

EMC says VSPEX Blue is designed to simplify IT infrastructure deployment and management, enabling customers to go from power on to provisioning virtual machines in under 15 minutes.

EMC is adding VSPEX Blue Manager for accessing information and managing patch and software updates and Market, which provides access to solutions and technologies developed by EMC and technology partners and pre-validated for the VSPEX Blue appliance.

EMC Secure Remote Support is also provided for support and monitoring capabilities.

Arron Patterson, EMC New Zealand chief technology officer, says the infrastructure appliance combines compute, networking, storage and management to deliver an all-in-one solution for customers, reducing the time and effort required to configure appropriate solutions.

“It is also extremely simple to order requiring just a single SKU, reducing purchasing and procurement overhead,” he adds.

Patterson says the VSPEX Blue appliance ‘presents an unparalleled opportunity' for the New Zealand channel.

“This solution is an ideal size for New Zealand businesses, starting from a single appliance containing four engines – which supports approximately 100 general purpose virtual machines or 250 virtual desktops – and scaling seamlessly up to four appliances containing 16 engines, which support approximately 400 general purpose VMs or 1000 virtual desktops.

Patterson says there are ‘many' extra opportunities for additional services and consulting engagements as the appliances include EMC RecoverPoint replication software, VMware Advanced Data Protection to meet backup needs and EMC Cloud Array capability to connect to and leverage cloud storage offerings.

The EMC VSPEX hyper-converged infrastructure appliance is generally available February 17.