10 March 2008
by Alex Scroxton
As part of Foundry’s push into the enterprise switching sector, the firm has unveiled a technology alliance programme to allow its customers to implement multi-vendor, interoperable networks.
The decision to link in with other vendors’ systems chimes with a wider industry trend that is a reaction to customer demand for a single solution.
Benjamin Taft, Foundry vice-president of corporate marketing and business development, said the IronPowered Technology Alliance would allow decision makers to "drive the network, rather than the network dictating business strategy".
The programme includes co-marketing and branding benefits, lead generation and a joint training and support infrastructure. Vendors already signed up include Microsoft, Mitel and Symantec.
Foundry enterprise business development director Amy Mollatt said that although the firm’s channel partners would "touch the programme", it had not been designed with them in mind.
"We are not yet positioned for a complete solution set… For us it is all about going head-to-head with Cisco," she said.
Foundry’s channel is also waiting to hear about changes that are expected to go public before the end of April. Earlier this year the vendor was tipped to bring on board another distributor (MicroScope, 14 January), and sources close to the company have said Foundry is clearly ramping up its presence.
"Matrix certainly seems to be accelerating its relationship with Foundry," one integrator said.
