After signing managed services provider Calyx as the firstUK Elite partner in its revamped channel programme, Brocade has revealed that anumber of disgruntled Cisco partners have been knocking at its doors in recentweeks.
Speaking to MicroScope, Brocade EMEA channel sales directorAmanda Giddins said increasing competition in the Cisco market was beginning toprove too much for some.
"Cisco favours its Gold Partners, and it gets to a pointwhere there are so many Cisco partners in a bid that it comes down to a pricewar," she said.
She added: "Calyx was an existing Foundry partner as well asa Cisco partner, and this is very much about how we can work with existingpartners to make them more datacentre oriented. Calyx is strong in IT andmanaged services and is interested in moving into SANs as well."
The Elite level is the highest of four possible Brocadechannel accreditations, but resellers across all tiers of the programme benefitfrom sales, marketing and technical support, plus deal protection that extendsacross its Technology Alliance Partner Programme.
This means that Brocade partners can add kit from othervendors, such as IBM or EMC into their deals and receive the same levels ofprotection, while IBM dealers can do the same in reverse.
Giddins added that after having given existing Brocadedistributor Avnet access to the Foundry portfolio earlier in the summer, therewere currently no plans to recruit further distributors and said she was "morefocused on SIs right now".
Brocade also added Magirus on the continent, but thisrelationship will not be coming to the UK.
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