Effortless network offers

Barbara Spicek, Brocade’s vice president of worldwide channels, talks to The Channel about the company’s latest offerings and its plans for the New Zealand reseller channel.

Brocade has unveiled its vision for ‘the effortless network’, backing the initiative with several new channel programmes including a deal registration.

The effortless network vision is based on Brocade’s HyperEdge technology, which it says is designed to deliver new levels of automation and simplification of the campus LAN lifecycle. Two additions to the ICX switch family – the 6430 and the 6450 – have also been introduced to support the advancements in campus LAN technology.

Meanwhile the new channel initiatives, part of the Brocade Alliance Partner Network programme, also include demo programme discounts, plus the global Brocade ICX switch seed unit initiative which allows qualified partners to ‘test drive’ the new products and gain hands on experience, are designed to help partners better capitalise on sales opportunities.

Barbara Spicek, Brocade vice president of worldwide channels, says Brocade is ‘enabling transformation’ particularly to the cloud, through its ethernet fabric offering, combined with the new campus LAN technology, second generation ICX switches and the Brocade network subscription programme.

Spicek says the effortless network vision is ‘very much’ in line with the Brocade One message, which positions Brocade ‘as a company that helps smoothly transition networks to a world where data sits everywhere’.

“With the introduction of the Brocade ICX product portfolio and the new campus-focused APN initiatives, Brocade is delivering on its promise of leveraging the strength of the channel to bring about IT transformation – while empowering our partners to be more competitive,” she says. “We are focused on building technology solutions around the vision of the effortless network and extending that focus to our go-to-market strategy to help partners deliver radically simplified solutions that dramatically reduce network complexity and operational overhead.”