Extreme names first UK dealer

US startup networking company Extreme Networks has signed its first high-margin reseller after recruiting ex-Bay Networks chief David Grant to head its UK operation.

Extreme Networks, financed by Kleiner Perkins and other Silicon Valley investors, said Fastnet, its first authorised UK reseller, will target Times 1,000 firms with Extreme?s routers and network software.

George Prodan, vice president of marketing at Extreme, said: ?We?re establishing a direct and an indirect salesforce. Fastnet is the first reseller in the UK. We want four to six resellers with experience of installing routers.?

He claimed that the 14-month-old company could deliver both Layer 2 and Layer 3 throughput at a faster speed than any of its competitors. Prodan said: ?We are part of the third wave of providing these services.?

Prodan said Extreme was still held privately, even though it was financed by Silicon Valley. It focuses on beating the market on speed of access and manufactures its own Asic chips.

Extreme?s software, he claimed, allows administrators to decide how to allocate bandwidth, and fast or slow services ? for instance, what proportion of the organisation gets priority on video streaming, rather than more basic internet services.

Malcolm McGougan, marketing manager at Fastnet, said the reseller had selected Extreme for a number of reasons.

?Our clients expect Fastnet to take responsibility for identifying and investing in new technologies on their behalf,? he said. ?We selected Extreme because its Summit Switches offer the highest performance at Layers 2 and 3.?