Brocade resellers to buy direct

Brocade has made changes to its channel program that allow resellers to buy products direct from the switch vendor.

Graham Schultz, country manager A/NZ at Brocade, said the company traditionally sold its products through OEM distribution agreements.

“Brocade is a SAN and fibre switch manufacturer and in the past we had OEM distribution agreements set in place with vendors like Dell, IBM, Unisys and Sun.

“The recent agreement with Packeteer means we need to rethink our channel strategy. Our restructured channel program will allow us to combine the past channel strategy to incorporate direct partnerships with resellers,” he said.

Brocade recently signed an OEM distribution agreement with Packeteer to sell the Tacit range of WAFS solution as part of Brocade's "Tapestry" switch portfolio.

Brocade was also an investor in Tacit, which was bought by Packeteer in May.

The new channel program - dubbed the Brocade Alliance Partner Network - unifies all of the existing channel programs, including the Elite Partner Program and Tapestry Partner programs, the company said.

Participating channel partners are eligible to receive benefits including monthly accrued marketing development funds (MDF), dedicated marketing and sales representative support, free sales and technical training for Brocade Tapestry products.

Schultz also said resellers will receive presales technical support, knowledge base access, access to technical tools via a secure web site and presence on the Brocade web site.