Emerging Vendors

July 14, 2009

Company: A10 Networks

Headquarters: San Jose, Calif.

Technology Sector: Networking

Key Product: AX Series Advanced Traffic Manager

Year Founded: 2004

Number of Channel Partners: 104 worldwide

Ideal Channel Partner: Enterprise-focused solution providers

Why You Should Care: A10 is embracing the channel, looking to get out its message of delivering applications over the Web faster, better and greener.

The Lowdown: A10 networks is realizing that it's no longer just about load balancing, but more about application delivery. As the number of applications and the amount of traffic on the network jumps, A10 is turning to the channel to carry its message of delivering applications over the Web faster, better and greener. A10's ultimate goal is to offer acceleration, identification and visibility to network activities.

"It's twice the performance at half the price," said Jim Lima, A10's channel chief, noting that A10 competes most closely with F5 in the application delivery space.

Along with moving away from its image as just a load balancing company, A10 is also starting to shy away from its service provider roots and dig deeper into the enterprise space, which now accounts for 60 percent of its sales.

"We're beginning to engage with more enterprise customers this year," Lima said, adding that it's prime time for the channel to engage customers with A10's AX series of Advanced Traffic Managers as the load balancers and application delivery controllers deployed are nearing refresh.

A10 AX 3200

A10's AX series is still considered a load balancer, but it's designed to scale and maximize application availability and delivery. The devices feature the Advanced Core Operating System architecture with native multi-systems support, which A10 says is faster and more scalable than competitors. A10 also crams all available features into the standard list price, as opposed to making certain features add-ons.

While Lima said A10 is not actively recruiting VARs and partners, its name is getting out there and resellers are coming to the company via word of month. In response, A10 has launched a channel program offering online sales training and additional training opportunities along with partner incentives like lead rewards and more.

"I have no plans to create an over-distributed market," Lima said.

Lee Chen, A10's CEO added: "Our channel is not about the program, it's about execution."