Opengear to enter Indian market

Open source infrastructure management vendor Opengear today announced its entry into the Indian market with distribution partner 20north.com.

The move made Opengear's server products available to Indian enterprise customers via 20north.com's online portal.

20North.com distributes products by international brands including Reebok, Sanyo and Toshiba. Its web site invites Indian customers to "shop in the USA".

Opengear was established in the US state of Utah by Australian entrepreneur Bob Waldie. Its local office was launched in Queensland in June 2005.

The vendor's director and VP of engineering Tony Merenda said the partnership with 20North.com would shorten its time to market, citing "scorching growth" in the infrastructure management services market.

"The open source market in India is definitely on the growth curve with Indian enterprises warming up to the concept, which portends well for us," he said.

20North's managing director Jawad Ayaz said the company was confident its enterprise customers would find the easy availability of Opengear's product range of high value.

The distributor would be responsible for customs clearance, last mile delivery and reverse logistics.

"With turnkey fulfillment from US to India and with our in-country purchase support and payment collection services, we hope to support Opengear's rapid growth in the Indian market," Ayaz said in a statement.

Opengear, which boasts customers in more than 10,000 worldwide locations, has contracts with the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade and Australian gaming company Tatts Group.

Earlier this year, it announced that it would shave 30 percent from the local list prices of its console server and management products to reflect the strong value of the Australian dollar.