RLX Hires Channel Chief

The New York-based vendor hired Patrick Brogan, a former regional channel manager at Juniper Networks, as director of channel sales, said Cynthia

Ciangio, vice president of marketing at RLX. Brogan also served as a partner development manager at Cisco Systems.

"He is just now developing his [channel plan and starting to get some resellers on board," Ciangio said.

Competing against vendors such as Hewlett-Packard, IBM and Sun Microsystems, RLX is sharpening its focus on the channel to help grow its market share, company executives said. RLX's channel sales organization will buttress its direct-sales force, which the vendor has used since its launch, they said.

Chaired by former Compaq Computer executive Gary Stimac, RLX launched its first blade servers last year. The company hopes the cash injection will push it into the black, Ciangio said. "Much of the funding is to help us achieve profitability," she said. "While the product [sales are coming in,and we are enjoying a revenue stream,we are still in development of products. We expect this to be the last round of funding."

The latest round of funding was led by affiliates of Soros Private Equity Partners and Sternhill Partners, according to RLX.

Although RLX's product line is still new, "sales for it are going very well," said Amy Rao, CEO of Palo Alto, Calif.-based Integrated Archive Systems, an early RLX solution provider.

"They are definitely the leader in blade technology for servers, in serviceability and form factor," Rao said. "They just have a great solution set."

Rao said she has already met with Brogan. "We have great respect for Patrick.

He is channel-friendly," she said.

RLX made headlines when it launched last year, partly because Stimac, a Compaq co-founder, and other former Compaq executives took over management of the vendor and competed head to head with Compaq before its merger with HP. RLX also was among the first major server vendors to begin using Transmeta processors. In addition, the company uses low-voltage Intel processors in several solutions and has begun providing software management platforms.

Details on RLX's marketing plans and upcoming products will be disclosed later this year, Ciangio said.