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Brocade ties up with IBM

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CIOL Bureau
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NEW DELHI: Brocade announced that IBM will rebrand and sell the Brocade enterprise IP networking family of products through the IBM global sales force and authorized IBM Business Partners in India.

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This original equipment manufacturer (OEM) agreement complements and extends the existing relationship between Brocade and IBM for storage area networking (SAN) products. Initially, IBM plans to sell the following Brocade IP networking product families under the OEM agreement, with additional products to be added over time.

In support of this agreement, Brocade has been working with IBM to develop customized programs across many key functional areas, including sales, marketing, training/certification, and technical support/service.

“Our customers expect a complete, cost-effective solution that would help them build a dynamic infrastructure. They are not looking at point products from multiple vendors to build their data center, said Shailesh Agarwal, VP-Sales Programs, Systems and Technology Group, IBM India/SA. “This partnership helps us be more responsive as it addresses specific requirements of a client's networking capabilities coupled with applications, that we can add to our existing portfolio of hardware and services for the data center build,” he added.

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“This agreement with IBM underscores Brocade's long-term commitment to its OEM customers, a strategy we believe delivers the full promise of next-generation enterprise networking solutions in a pragmatic, non-proprietary way to protect customers' IT investments,” said Ashis Guha, Regional Manager, Brocade India. “IBM's selection of the Brocade high-performance, high-volume networking product family provides customers with a very competitive choice in their IT infrastructure. We look forward to bringing these solutions to market through IBM's global sales channel,” he added.

IBM currently re-brands and sells a broad portfolio of Brocade data center networking products and technologies, including the multi-protocol Brocade DCX Backbone along with fibre channel directors, standalone and embedded switches, host bus adapters, and related software. Today's amended agreement strengthens and further diversifies Brocade go-to-market routes for its enterprise IP networking portfolio. Customers will now be able to purchase Brocade networking products and services through any combination of channels, including OEM sellers, global resellers, and direct from Brocade.

"The India Networking Equipment market has started showing early signs of a recovery (Q3 CY2009 vis-a-vis Q2 CY2009) and is expected to come back into its own by mid-2010,” said Surjyadeb Goswami, Manager-Communications Research, IDC India. “With the government and telecom service provider (TSP) segments on a high investment spree, the India market presents a distinct opportunity for vendors to increase their share of the pie,” he concluded.

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