Violin Memory's new country manager to lead ANZ expansion

Violin Memory, the flash storage provider, has a new country manager for Australia and New Zealand to aid expansion in this market.

Michael Burnie, who has more than three decades of experience in the IT storage industry, was appointed to 'drive aggressive growth in the region', says Violin Memory.

The vendor says the ANZ region is one of its largest growth markets in Asia Pacific, and Burnie's appointment is a strategic move to spearhead this growth.

Burnie will be responsible for overseeing Violin's local sales team, with the aim of nurturing relationships with Violin's existing customer and channel partner base, as well as building relationships through new business acquisition.

Previously, he helped launch storage vendors such as EMC Corporation, Network Appliance (NetApp) and Isilon Systems (acquired by EMC in 2010) into the Australian market.

Jeffrey Morrison, Violin Memory vice president and general manager for Asia Pacific says, "Michael joins us at a critical and very exciting time at Violin Memory's genesis here in ANZ.

"The explosive growth of data is having a significant impact on how organisations run their business. In a fast-paced environment, everyone demands data fast, in real-time without any downtime.

"We are transforming businesses by accelerating their applications in the cloud at peak performance, using flash," he says.

"Given his wealth of experience in leadership and sales roles, with a proven track record in achieving revenue success across the ANZ storage markets, Michael is an ideal fit to lead this transformation together with the Violin Memory team here," says Morrison.

Burnie says he is 'excited' to be leading the team, and following the recent launch of Violin's Flash Storage Platform is looking forward to enabling further expansion.