Headquarters: Belmont, Calif.

Technology Sector: Networking

Key Product: Vyatta Subscription Edition, available as software or installed on a hardware appliance

Year Founded: 2005

Number Of Channel Partners: 150 worldwide

Ideal Channel Partner: Enterprise-focused solution provider

Why You Should Care: As an open-source vendor, Vyatta breaks down the walls of proprietary networking, enabling the channel to offer networking products at anywhere from one-fourth to one-half the cost of its rivals.

The Lowdown: Vyatta is all about openness. The four-year-old open-source networking vendor thrives on it. Heck, even the name "Vyatta" is Sanskrit for "open."

Vyatta 2500 Series Appliance

At its core, Vyatta makes high-performance, affordable networking software and hardware products leveraging Linux, IP, Ethernet and the performance increases of x86-based processors. That openness has earned Vyatta several hundred customers and roughly 150 global channel partners.

And Vyatta knows the importance of the channel. Dave Roberts, the company's vice president of strategy, said it gives partners several ways to work with Vyatta and make money: a multitiered channel program, a consultant program with referral bonuses and a Web associates program.

"With proprietary networking, if a customer or partners wanted to make enhancements and tweaks, we would have to build it. What is unique and interesting with Vyatta is they can do it themselves," Roberts said. "It's a collaborative environment."

As a bonus, Roberts said, partners can take Vyatta's software, customize it and sell it on their own branded hardware to make extra margin.

Julius Turk, business development manager at ACE Computer, said Vyatta gives solution providers a strong value proposition, offering the same high functionality of the Cisco Systems' of the world for a fraction of the cost.

"They offer a competitively priced alternative with the same power and the same performance," he said. "That's a real-value proposition that's helpful to the sale."