Network upgrade is coming: Brocade, Asia Pacific

What are the key trends that will keep the data networking players on their toes in the year ahead?

I see network upgradation coming up in a big way. About 65% of networks are going to be re-architectured in the next two years. Over the past few years, the definition of network traffic has evolved dramatically. The traffic is increasing as more and more applications are being shared, especially, high quality media such as video. Thus we see a data explosion. The market is now beyond just traffic growth, there are some interesting trends such as virtualization, simplification of network resources and consolidation down to single transport infrastructure, picking up. Virtualization is gaining popularity with tier-2/3 applications. There is a rising need for simplification of solution and to consolidate them into one transport vehicle. We are investing R&D dollars in simplification of solutions on management. Campus LAN customers are consolidating separate voice, data and video networks and trying to multiplex everything over a new Ethernet infrastructure.

What will be your focus for the Indian market?

We have earmarked India as a crucial market and extensive efforts are on for new product development. At present we are about 400 plus team in India. We have aggressive talent acquisition programs. Continued investment in the region is a part of long term growth plans here. We will continue investments in R&D at 18-20% per year. Storage networking applications, FcoE/CEE applications, management products, ASIC design & testing, and IP networking will be some of the R&D focal areas for the India team. We are now ready to take up new challenges in 2010. Brocade global services is our focus for the new year.

How do you look at involvement of multiple players for open standards for your business?

I believe it is really good. Competition is good because it benefits the customer. At Brocade we have honored partnerships with world class vendors. The customer wanted a choice. Adopting open standards and sharing intellectual property with partners gives a choice to reap rewards that the network has to offer.

We sell product, support and professional services. For other services we partner with experts. We are a partner centric company and we have some great partnerships around the world. We will be focusing a lot on bringing specific value to the verticals. Our aim will not be to offer technology alone, but also to offer a complete package of solution.

A key focus and pressure for partners is profitability. Real money comes from services that the partners are selling. We have been tying up with distributors in India. We have three direct VARs in India and one in Sri Lanka.

Where do most of your products come from?

Most of our products have been done by Foxconn in China. We have manufacturing agreements with Sanmina, Flextronics and Celestica.

Where do you see the new breed of competitors coming from?

The market for data and storage networking solutions is intensely competitive. New competitors may emerge from the existing Ethernet networking companies in the market. These competitors are likely to use emerging technologies and alternate routes to market. Also our OEM partners, who have relationships with some of our current competitors, could become new competition by introducing competitive product offering and preferred pricing or by simply choosing to promote and sell competitors products. The competition will gain intensity with consolidation happening in the market.

heenaj@cybermedia.co.in