Brocade channel partners primed to shape software-driven networking

Brocade says that the channel can seize a competitive advantage in the industry by strategically advising organisations on software networking, virtualisation, and the cloud. The observation is based on the results of its annual channel survey, which was completed by more than 570 Brocade distributors and resellers worldwide*. 

Survey respondents noted customer challenges in 2014 include managing network complexity and meeting data centre bandwidth and availability requirements. Partners also estimated that their customers’ data centres will be mostly virtualised in the next 12 months.

“In 2015, our focus is on equipping Brocade partners to lead the transformation in networking to the New IP - delivering exceptional customer experiences that leverage software networking while optimising customers’ existing networks,” said Bill Lipsin, Brocade Vice President of Global Channel Sales and Marketing. 

“In the coming year, we’re investing in providing the building blocks for cloud offerings so that partners can deliver networking solutions covering both cloud and on-premise solutions.”

Survey findings include:

· Forty-seven percent of respondents say managing complexity is a top challenge for their customers. A further 41% believe dealing with data centre bandwidth and availability is another top challenge.

· Technology differentiation is the most important factor when it comes to selecting a vendor, followed by market-proven solutions and vision/strategy

· Sixty percent of partners said software-defined networking (SDN) and network functions virtualisation (NFV) will be a significant trend for all resellers within 24 months

· Eighty percent of partners said that they/their customers are already deploying, or will be evaluating, SDN/NFV within the next 12 months

· Two thirds of partners surveyed estimate that more than half of customers’ data centers will be virtualised within 12 months

“The modern era of social, mobile, cloud, and big data imposes new requirements on the underlying infrastructure that legacy network architectures were not designed to support. In order for channel partners to remain relevant in this new world they must expand their networking practices to include offerings that address the requirements of the New IP,” said Jason Nolet, Brocade Vice President of Switching, Routing, and Analytics products. 

*The research, conducted by Brocade via an anonymous online SurveyGizmo survey, was cast among a wide range of individuals at partner organizations. The majority of respondents were from sales (43%) and tech (42%) job functions, with the remaining respondents in executive level (8%) and marketing (6%) functions. The global breakdown for respondents was: 47% from the Americas (268); 40% from EMEA (231); 8% from Japan (48) and 5% from APAC (27).