Business may have been slow in 2009 but that has not dampen down, Brocade from unveiling a range of solutions and services. The vendor has used this period when the global economy has slowed down to focus on growth and formalise its engagement model with solution providers in the region.
The vendor which in last year concluded the acquisition of Foundry Networks, has been integrating the Foundry products into its range of data centre networking solutions. In addition, the company has been formalising it channel engagement with partners.
Khalid Khalil, Regional Sales Manager, CEMA at Brocade says although sales have generally been flat in the IT industry in the region, Brocade’s business has been good largely due to the fact that no IT project that selected Brocade’s solutions has been cancelled. “There has been some delays in decision making but that is to be expected especially when the economic climate is harsh,” he says.
Consequently, says Khalil, the company has been assisting enterprise customers on how they can remove IT redundancies and run efficient data centres.
Khalil adds that the company has also been pushing in the education, telecoms and banking sectors as these hold so much potential in the regional. “From a solutions focus, data centre, IP business and LAN solutions are a huge growth area for us,” he says.
Aside from the product integration, data centre and IP business and LAN solutions push, the vendor has also been building a single channel one that will represent Brocade’s products going forward.
While Brocade has had a formalised channel model, Khalil points out that Foundry Networkd had no channel structure in the Middle East region and worked with solution providers on an ad hoc basis. “We have had to start from scratch with all the partners that worked with Foundry Networks in the past,” he says.
He points out that the companies approach has been to go for quality rather than quantity. “We are not recruiting partners to attain a high number of partners on the ground but bringing on board partners who will add value to our solutions,” he says.
Earlier this year, Brocade revealed it was expanding its global Alliance Partner Network with new channel programmes designed to attract storage and IP networking channel resellers with more selective and profitable professional services, support, and warranty offerings.
The new Brocade Professional Services Programme (PSP) allows a selective group of channel partners to deliver a wide scope of Brocade IP professional services or resell their own services as Brocade-certified.
Furthermore, Brocade also unveiled the Support Delivery Program (SDP), which enables selective channel partners to deliver Tier-1 and -2 support, as well as the new Brocade Assurance Limited Lifetime Warranty on select IP networking products.
Khalil adds that services has become one of the most important elements of a successful partner’s portfolio and can often be the foundation for expanding the partner’s role from trusted business advisor to trusted technical advisor.
In an effort to address the growing Brocade IP/Ethernet networking install base and increased market demand, the Brocade PSP enables Brocade solution providers to deliver high-value professional services to their customers directly after achieving the newly created Brocade IP Certified Consultant certification or by reselling Brocade services and resident consultant offerings.
The Brocade SDP is designed to offer select partners the opportunity to provide support for Brocade data centre and IP/Ethernet networking solutions, enabling new offerings and building stronger, more strategic relationships with customers.
Khalil says the company has recognised that partners have varying levels of knowledge and technical capabilities on Brocade products, the Brocade SDP uses a tiered approach with two distinct levels of partnership: specialists and professionals. Under both partnership tiers, the Brocade SDP partner defines and delivers their own support offering on Brocade products.
He points out that in the Middle East region, Mindware is Brocade’s SDP partner and will support and provide spare parts to solution providers in the region.
Looking ahead, Khalil adds that Abu Dhabi, Kuwait, Iraq and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia as markets will will receive focus from a growth perspective in the region.
With the Foundry Networks acquisition now behind it, Brocade, a data centre networking solutions and services vendor is looking at cementing its footprint in the Middle East region with enhanced product offerings and stronger channel alliances with partners as RWME?s Manda Banda reports.
