Hitachi Vantara names ANZ partner award winners 2025 awards

Hitachi Vantara has named the winners of its 2025 Australia and New Zealand Partner of the Year Awards, presented at its ANZ Exchange 2026 gathering on the Gold Coast.

The awards recognised five partners across growth, customer acquisition, alliances, elite status and emerging channel performance. The winners were Cordant, The Missing Link, AGFA, Brocade Storage Networking Division at Broadcom, and Ethan Global.

The awards were part of a broader event focused on artificial intelligence readiness, data sovereignty and cyber resilience. Research from Hitachi Vantara found that 56% of Australian organisations are operating with data practices that fall short of AI requirements, while 78% said data complexity is increasing faster than they can manage.

Nathan Knight, vice president and managing director for Australia and New Zealand at Hitachi Vantara, said those findings reflect customer concerns about AI investment.

"The question we hear consistently is not whether to invest in AI, but how to make that investment actually work. The answer always comes back to data foundations: building infrastructure that's resilient, secure, well-governed and fit for the sovereignty demands shaping this region," Knight said.

He said the event was marked by open and practical discussions.

"What struck me most at ANZ Exchange this year was the quality and candour of the conversations, from customers sharing real implementation challenges to partners showing the practical outcomes they're delivering on the ground. That kind of direct, honest exchange is exactly what the ANZ technology community needs right now, and it's what we built this event to enable."

Award winners

Cordant was named ANZ Rising Star Partner of the Year 2025. A new addition to the partner programme, it has already recorded growth in revenue and pipeline for digital infrastructure solutions.

"Receiving the Hitachi Vantara Rising Star Award is a proud moment for the entire Cordant team. To be recognised at this stage of our hardware journey speaks to the momentum we've built and the hard work of our people, and is a reflection of the strong partnership we've developed with Hitachi Vantara over the past three years. At Cordant, our mission is to simplify complex technology environments and help our customers modernise, secure, and lead in an ever-changing digital landscape. Hitachi Vantara's data infrastructure and hybrid cloud solutions have allowed us to extend that offering, giving our customers access to technology backed by decades of proven innovation. What sets Hitachi Vantara apart is their genuine commitment to the customer relationship, and that aligns to our values. This award motivates us enormously. We are just getting started, and we look forward to continuing to grow alongside Hitachi Vantara," said Tony Shand, director at Cordant.

The Missing Link received ANZ Acquisition Partner of the Year 2025. After joining the channel ecosystem in 2025, it generated the highest number of net new customer logos among partners during the year.

"We're incredibly proud of our team and the strength of our partnership with Hitachi Vantara. Growing together has been positive not just for our businesses, but for our customers, as it allows us to bring proven, enterprise-grade infrastructure solutions to organisations of all sizes. This award reflects the trust our clients place in us and the tangible outcomes we're delivering through that collaboration," said Ashley Steadman, modern infrastructure and AI sales manager at The Missing Link.

AGFA was named ANZ Growth Partner of the Year 2025. A partner in Australia and New Zealand for 25 years, the company delivered its strongest year-on-year growth while increasing engagement and collaboration.

"AGFA HealthCare is incredibly grateful for the invitation to ANZ Exchange 2026. Being recognised as FY25 ANZ Growth Partner of the Year is a proud moment for AGFA HealthCare Australia and reflects the strength of our partnership. We truly value this collaboration and look forward to continuing our shared growth and success into the future," said Simon Cheng, technical pre-sales consultant, ASPAC, at AGFA HealthCare.

Brocade Storage Networking Division at Broadcom won Technology Alliances Partner of the Year 2025. The companies recently launched Brocade Gen 8 and VSP One Block High End solutions together, and customers in Australia and New Zealand use their joint SAN fabric offering.

"Winning the Hitachi Vantara ANZ Technology Alliance Partner of the Year 2025 award validates the incredible strength of our 25 year alliance. Brocade and Hitachi Vantara have co-innovated to define the gold standard for data centre resilience. Together we remain committed to delivering secure, high-performance storage and SAN solutions that allow our customers to scale AI and hybrid cloud with absolute confidence in their data's integrity," said Martin Skagen, vice president and general manager of Brocade Storage Networking at Broadcom.

Ethan Global was named Elite Partner of the Year 2025. The company joined the partner programme in 2023 and posted 160% year-on-year growth in 2025, while being promoted to elite partner status.

"Winning Hitachi Vantara's Elite Partner of the Year Award isn't just recognition, it's proof that the model is working. We partner with the best to deliver the best. Hitachi Vantara has always stood for quality, innovation, and serious capability across storage, data infrastructure, and private cloud, exactly where our clients need us to lead. This partnership strengthens our position as we help customers move faster into AI, while doubling down on our ambition to become Australia's leading private cloud provider. We're building something big, and we're just getting started. Watch this space"

Channel investment

Steven Lee, ANZ partner director at Hitachi Vantara, said the company increased support for the channel over the past year through local sales incentives, funded headcount and market development funds.

"The Hitachi Vantara partner ecosystem continues to grow and positively contribute to the overall success of the ANZ business. In the past year, we have increased our investment in the channel with local sales incentive programs like Run to Win, a program designed to accelerate new customer acquisition, and doubled down on funded headcount and partner MDF to help drive customer awareness and consideration of Hitachi Vantara, and help partners build, compete and win profitably in the market with Hitachi Vantara. This has translated into significant year-on-year growth in net new logos for Hitachi Vantara and our partners."