Cheryl Neal, vice president marketing, Avnet Technology Solutions
Resellers looking to expand their expertise in data centre virtualization and get the training required to leverage the fairly complex Brocade VCS technology now have a new path to follow. Avnet and Brocade have joined forces to create a new program for their partners called Avnet Accelerator.
Cheryl Neal, vice president marketing, Avnet Technology Solutions, Americas, Technology Infrastructure Solutions group spoke with CRN Canada to explain a bit more about the program and what it has to offer.
The program is by invitation only (partners can self-nominate), because of the size of investment by Avnet and Brocade into the growth of accepted partners. Neal said the program is also invitation-only because partners need to be willing to put their time and resources into enabling and driving demand with Avnet. “We put a lot into it and we would want partners to be willing to do the same,” she said.
The program’s primary focus is on Brocade’s Ethernet fabric technologies- specifically solutions that can be deployed with the use of Brocade VCS technology and the Brocade VDX 6720 Data Center Switch.
“When we originally worked with Brocade on this, one of the things we felt was compelling with this product was that it really fits in any vertical that has high traffic networks,” Neal said. “The ones that we’re targeting initially are government, education and healthcare, but energy and some of those are compelling also. And, with Avnet’s vertical expertise enabling our partners we thought this was a great fit.”
In January Brocade made available two certifications around these solutions: the Virtualized Fabrics Partner Specialization and the Brocade Certified Ethernet Fabric Engineer (BCEFE) Certification. Partners lacking these certifications can still be nominated for the program as they are integrated into the Accelerator track.
