Brocade outlines India market strategy

Mumbai: Brocade Communication Systems commands more than 80 percent of the Fiber Channel Switch and more than 90 percent of the Fixed-port Switch market in Asia Pacific region. With the acquisition of Foundry in early 2009, the company also has a rapidly growing Ethernet footprint with a presence in 17 locations in nine countries.

Ian Whiting, Senior VP-Worldwide Sales & Marketing said, “Brocade has identified India as a strategic country of focus within the Asia-Pacific region and significantly increased its investments and commitment to the country. During the last year alone, Brocade has doubled its employee base in the country and would do the same in the ensuing year as well.” Whiting added, “India is a highly strategic country for the continued technology success of Brocade both in product development and engineering. The company has more engineers in India than anywhere else in the world outside of the US. We have two R&D centers located in India-Bengaluru and Pune, focusing on SAN applications, FCoE/CEE applications, IP networking and ASIC design and testing. Additionally, Brocade also has sales offices in Mumbai, Bengaluru and New Delhi, providing end-to-end networking solutions and services to its large customer base here,” added Whiting.

In India, Brocade markets a complete product range of storage and Ethernet networking products and solutions. In addition to providing end-to-end products and solutions around SAN and IP Brocade also provides a common management framework for its products. To tie everything together, Brocade's Global Services also offers professional services and world-class support to partners and customers in India.

Recently, Brocade also expanded its global Alliance Partner Network with new channel programs designed to attract storage and IP networking channel resellers with more selective and profitable professional services, support, and warranty offerings. This will help Brocade identify and work with systems integrators which are able to address the enterprise space. Currently, the company works directly with all major OEMs and is in the process of recruiting channel partners.

Elaborating on the business partnerships that Brocade has forged, Whiting said, “Partnerships are part of Brocade's DNA, and we are committed to open standards and solutions. Globally, Brocade has invested $1 billion in cooperative development and testing with partners. Brocade plans to continue diversifying its routes to market through multi-tiered channels, as well as continue its strategic partnerships with OEMs.”

In the current economic scenario managing costs and bandwidth demands continues to be the biggest challenge faced by user organizations the world over. Brocade's 2009 customer research has revealed that the top drivers for IP Ethernet networking solutions are data growth, security, business continuity and disaster recovery. In the area of storage networking, companies are driven by the need to reduce cost, ensure business continuity and carry out virtualization.