01732 759725 DISTRIBUTOR NEWS 04 New partnerships highlight Hammer’s evolving capabilities Hammer Distribution, the specialist enterprise IT distributor, has announced a raft of new distribution agreements after reverting to its original name from Exertis Enterprise. The revival of the Hammer name follows DCC’s sale of its Exertis IT businesses in the UK and Ireland to Aurelius, including Exertis UK Business and Consumer, Hypertec, Exertis Supplies, Exertis Ireland, Macro EV, Exertis Supply Chain Services, MTR and Ztorm, but not Exertis Enterprise, now Hammer. While Hammer remains a leading distributor of enterprise IT components, including storage devices, networking, GPUs and CPUs, its capabilities have evolved significantly since 2018 when it was acquired by DCC. These include an expanded product portfolio with the addition of power protection and datacentre connectivity; a dedicated cybersecurity team; a Cloud sales platform delivering modern workplace, infrastructure and cyber-asa-service; and a specialist Networking Division powering AI-ready datacentres. Over the same period, Hammer has evolved from a UK-centric business into a leading European distributor with six additional trading offices across Europe, a European warehouse and a state-ofthe-art production facility for delivering ready-made datacentre solutions. Hammer’s new vendor partnerships reflect its commitment to meet evolving customer needs as AI, cloud and cybersecurity reshape infrastructure demands. New additions include iQuila, provider of a next-generation software-defined Ethernet overlay (VEN); Lightning IQ, a leader in real-time data intelligence and unstructured data management; and Liqid, a leader in composable infrastructure for on-premises datacentres and edge environments. Designed for modern, distributed enterprises, the iQuila platform delivers a true LAN experience over any internet connection (wired, wireless, 4G/5G, satellite), enabling users, sites and edge locations to operate as if they’re on the same office network with full Ethernet handoff. It unifies secure connectivity, performance optimisation and centralised control within a single, scalable software platform resulting in faster onboarding, simplified operations and lower infrastructure complexity, without the fragility and overheads of legacy VPNs. Dominic Ryles, Director of Sales and Alliances at Hammer Distribution, said: “Our partnership with iQuila marks an exciting step forward in how we enable our channel partners to tackle today’s connectivity and security challenges. iQuila’s innovative zero trust and VPN-free architecture perfectly complements our carefully curated cybersecurity portfolio, giving partners the ability to deliver modern, scalable and secure solutions to their customers.” Hammer’s partnership with Lightning IQ also brings new opportunities for partners, helping them to tackle the challenges of ROT (redundant, obsolete and trivial) data and unlock new value from enterprise information via a data discovery, compliance and cost optimisation platform that enables organisations to scan, map and index petabyte-scale unstructured data at unprecedented speed. The third new vendor, Liqid, gives partners across the UK, Benelux and Nordics access to software-defined composable GPU and CXL-based memory solutions that enable enterprises to overcome power, cooling and scaling challenges associated with deploying high‑density GPU and memory resources for inference workloads and build on‑premises infrastructure rivalling the agility and efficiency of the public cloud. Adam Blackwell, Director of AI, Server and Advanced Technology at Hammer, said: “ The demand for solutions that can handle data-heavy workloads like AI is growing exponentially, and Liqid’s composable infrastructure is perfectly positioned to meet this need. By bringing Liqid into our portfolio, we’re enabling our partners to deliver AI-ready infrastructure that is more efficient, more flexible and more profitable.” Hammer says the shift of enterprise AI from training to inference is creating a $100B+ TAM for inference infrastructure. Channel partners successfully adapting to hyperscaler cloud marketplaces, says Omdia Enterprise software sales through hyperscaler cloud marketplaces, led by AWS, Microsoft and Google Cloud, are forecast to surge from $30 billion in 2024 to $163 billion by 2030, according to Omdia. Its research suggests that the five-year compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 29.1% is being driven by growing enterprise adoption of marketplace procurement and greater use of hyperscaler marketplaces as a primary route to market by software vendors. Omdia Chief Analyst Alastair Edwards said: “Hyperscaler marketplaces continue to see rapid momentum as a route to market for vendors across the technology industry. A small but growing number of ISVs are now reaching – and exceeding – $1 billion of annual sales through AWS, Google Cloud Marketplace and Microsoft Azure Marketplace, as they activate both partners and distributors to reach a broader set of cloud customers and drive an increasing share of sales.” Key growth drivers identified by Omdia include Agentic AI, which is expected to be one of the fastest-growing categories in the next five years as hyperscalers promote agent marketplaces as a channel, and the continued growth of upfront multi-year cloud commitments by enterprise customers, a proportion of which customers can spend on third-party marketplace purchases. It estimates that there are currently close to $470 billion in cloud commitments across AWS, Microsoft Azure and Google Cloud, with nearly $30 billion of new commitments added in Q2 2025 alone. It suggests that customers are moving from using marketplace purchases to burn down unused commitments to more strategic marketplace procurement, negotiating cloud commitments to include budget for a broader set of vendor products that align with their cloud adoption strategies. Omdia’s research indicates that partner private offers and distributor models from all three of the major hyperscalers are enabling channel partners to adapt to this new procurement method rather than being displaced by it. It predicts that by 2030 partners will facilitate nearly 60% of all marketplace transactions, helping customers manage their commitments, purchase across multiple cloud marketplaces and provide expertise and support across the full customer lifecycle. https://omdia.tech.informa.com Dominic Ryles
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