EXCLUSIVE: Brocade to sign IP switch master distributor

Brocade will appoint a master distributor in Australia for its IP switch and router products within weeks in a major indication of its readiness to shift to a two-tier channel model.

The storage maker revealed to CRN in March its plans to "bring into the fold" existing partners of Foundry Networks, which it acquired in July 2008.

Brocade's regional manager for Australia and New Zealand, Graham Schultz, told CRN he was in "ongoing discussions" with a master distributor and expected contracts to be signed in the next two to three weeks.

Schultz also revealed Brocade had inked an original equipment manufacturing agreement with IBM.

"That gives us default distribution [of the IP products] through Ingram Micro and Avnet," he said.

"So channel partners can access IBM-branded IP switch and router products [already]. But we'll be introducing our own Brocade-branded distribution in the near future."

Schultz said Brocade was "committed to go exclusively through the channel" and had referred all new business opportunities to partners in the quarter just past.

"Even where we had direct relationships with the customers, we pushed the business through the channel," Schultz said.

"This will change slightly as we introduce a master distributor but we remain very partner focused. We want to support our channel to help them win business and make some money."

Schultz said the company was putting the final pieces of its channel infrastructure together, including rebates and pricing.

The move to incorporate a tiered channel structure is a new one for Brocade, which has traditionally sold through OEMs such as Dell, EMC, HP, IBM, NetApp and Sun.

It came as Brocade Australia recorded an "all-time record" Q3, according to Schultz, on the back of strong enterprise and mid-range storage area network sales, and government and corporate end-of-financial-year spending.

"The IP business [acquired from Foundry] was also probably stronger than we'd expected," Schultz said.

"That's exciting because we've put a lot of energy and effort into communicating it to the market and getting it ready for the channel."

Schultz said the fourth quarter was also looking strong with several big deals in the pipeline for its high-end Director-level switches.