Brocade eyes stack convergence specialists

New UK boss Marcus Jewell looks to forge technically specialised channels

Brocade's new UK boss is looking for channel specialists who can cash in on the convergence of the infrastructure stack.

Long-serving Mitel executive Marcus Jewell was revealed as the networking and SAN vendor's new UK and Ireland country manager last week. He told ChannelWeb that he would look to add to the vendor's 36 UK resellers by cultivating technically specialised routes to market based around server and application convergence.

"As a business we are a teenager, but as an IP channel player we are an infant," added Jewell (pictured). "You will see a very different approach to the channel from us, looking at technology-specific channels, as opposed to broad brush distribution.

"The voice and data channels are very converged. You look at them today and it's hard to remember [on which side] they started. We see the same thing happening with the application and server infrastructure. Where the application starts and the network stops is becoming increasingly difficult to demark."

The incoming UK boss also hinted that 2011 will be a landmark year for Brocade's portfolio. The storage and IP player hopes to shake up the edge networking landscape, explained Jewell.

"There is going to be a massive paradigm shift in what we are doing with edge networking," he added. "We are going to be first to market with some very interesting technologies. It is very hard to compete with HP's broad-brush, low-end edge switching. But we are going to enter with a different way of looking at the network. We do not want to compete on cost."

Look out for a full write-up of Jewell's plans for Brocade in next week's CRN.