Cisco: Avnet 'Uniquely Positioned' in Data Center Channel
Cisco's choice to add Avnet as a distributor for Cisco data center products stems from the fact that Avnet is in a "unique position in the industry to support Cisco's virtualization and server growth."
That was the word from Dave O'Callaghan, Cisco vice president of distribution, worldwide channels, who joined Avnet executives to discuss the Avnet move with Channelweb.com Thursday afternoon.
"They have a partner base centered around the data center," O'Callaghan said. "And the technical services and capabilities of Avnet and the Phoenix facilities are second to none in this area. Plus, the marketing that [Avnet] does around verticals in this segment is strong."
Jeff Bawol, president of Avnet Technology Solutions, Americas, added that Cisco product and services would be a good addition to Avnet's SolutionsPath, which is a series of training programs for VARs in areas like virtualization, health care and government. He touched on Avnet planning to build a dedicated business unit to Cisco products that will be headed by Chris Swahn, vice president and the unit's general business manager.
Cisco's Unified Computing System (UCS) is a collection of Cisco products that centers around new Cisco B-series blade and C-series rackmount servers, and looks to integrate storage, server, virtualization and networking capabilities in one package. The UCS debuted in March 2009, and in late October, Cisco confirmed distribution agreements with Westcon Group, Ingram Micro and Tech Data.
O'Callaghan said that the choice to add Avnet wasn't a reflection of anything those distributors weren't already doing, but the opportunity to add a distributor whose "selling motion" is in the data center. The Avnet relationship will cover North America and Canada, he explained.
"The three you mentioned are the globals, and they give us great reach to be able to extend our supply chain throughout the world." O'Callaghan said. "We also have a set of regionals and specialty distributors. Avnet is a high-value distributor, and [Cisco's data center] products are not a direct-model opportunity. The need for tech support and the partner base is there. Avnet has built vertical solutions around health care and other areas, and that's exciting to us. We thought Avnet was a step ahead of all other distributors in that area."
There would appear to be other options; Arrow ECS, for example, is EMC's largest North American distributor and VMware's largest worldwide distributor.
But O'Callaghan said that Cisco would not be seeking additional distribution relationships in North America in the short-term.
"Avnet will be our high-value, high-end distributor in the U.S. and Canada," he said. "We have added other distributors along the way for other specialties. D&H in the small business world, for example. I think you can draw a parallel between that and Avnet. This is their world, and they're uniquely positioned in their partner base. Cisco sees the seling motion of Avnet as allowing us to capture opportunities in the virtualization and data center better than we could through existing distribution relationships."
O'Callaghan added that Cisco studied Avnet's VAR base and found that "many Cisco VARs had a relationship with Avnet already."
"There was an incremental base of VARs that have not embraced the network historically, and lived in the storage and server world particularly," he said.
"I think there'll be some natural attraction," added Bawol, referring to existing Avnet VARs who would be interested in selling Cisco for the first time. "Dave's got a great channel working already and our goal is not to disrupt that channel. But we think we've been successful in the Americas and that there'll be some [attraction]. It's an incremental goal."
Under the distribution deal, Avnet will carry Cisco's Nexus data center family of switches, the MDS family of fiber channel SAN switches, Catalyst E-Blade switches, Unified Computing System (UCS) blade and rack servers, Application Control Engine (ACE) and WAN Optimization (WAAS) products.
Avnet is one of Hewlett Packard's top North American distributors, and the addition of Cisco to Avnet's line card also means another new front in the escalating HP-Cisco rivalry.
"We've always managed competitive vendors, and we focus our line card on players who are number one," Bawol said. "Our reach into the data center is going beyond a classic infrastructure person to those who have a business around data center management. So it's become glaringly apparent to us that we need to have all the products available to move partners to the data center. Candidly, Cisco was one of the right products for us from a distribution standpoint. Very candidly, our goal is not to shift a bunch of business from HP or IBM or any of the other industry guys we have. Our structure is incremental."
Did Avnet have conversations with HP, IBM and other Cisco data center rivals it carries?
"The short answer is yes we have. You wouldn't expect people who have multi-decade relationships not to discuss their business together," Bawol said. "It would be wrong for them to find Cisco on us and have it be a surprise. We had dialogue and they were aware of the situation. They understand that Cisco is entering the market and that it's our desire to provide the fullest solution for partners at all times."
How is adding Avnet a competitive advantage for Cisco over HP and IBM?
"As John Chambers has pointed out, the network is becoming the platform for everything. He has 30 adjacencies for us, and our virtualization and data center initiative is one of those," O'Callaghan added. "The decision on what's valuable will be made by the partner and end customer."
Next: Implications for VBlock and Cisco, EMC, VMware
Avnet's relationships with EMC, VMware and now Cisco will allow it to distribute the three vendors' Vblock Infrastructure Packages, too.
Designed to help customers who want to build virtual data centers and cloud computing infrastructure, Vblocks are a series of pre-configured, pre-tested solutions based on Cisco's UCS and network switches, EMC's Symmetrix or Clariion storage arrays and VMware's vSphere server virtualization platform.
"We've got a long history with EMC and a long history with VMware, and we're very excited to see how the three lines are coming together," Bawol said. "We see it as a very obvious extension and we think this will help us round out a complete offering."
Neither Bawol and O'Callaghan offered further details on how Vblock will move through the channel. Each individual vendor has its own channel policies, structure, rebates and other factors, and O'Callaghan said Cisco was still ironing out some of the details.
"I think that Avnet is where Vblock comes to life," O'Callaghan offered. "I think we're very early on VCE [the Cisco-VMware-EMC coalition], but the relationships are getting closer and tighter every day."
O'Callaghan also confirmed that the rate of certification for VARs interested in UCS had been faster than any prior certification Cisco had ever offered.
The growth stage for UCS would remain "deliberate," he said, but Cisco as of mid-December had 125 solution providers certified as Advanced Technology Providers (ATP) of the UCS, up from the 30 it had at the March launch.
For some solution providers, the availability of Cisco data center products through Avnet will be a boost to Avnet's visibility.
Ric Hughes, president and CEO of Systems Alliance, a Sparks, Md.-based solution provider, said that the move reinforces Avnet's approach to what it can offer partners.
"It also reflects well on their ability to form relationships with the top-tier vendors [that] partners and enterprise clients are most interested in doing business with," he said.
Other solution providers contacted by Channelweb.com acknowledged the move and its implications for the Cisco-HP rivalry.
"Of course it's an anti-HP move," said one solution provider, who requested anonymity. "Avnet? That's HP's house. It's an EMC and VMware house, too, so I get that part. But this is Cisco practically showing up in HP's driveway."