Briefs: May 1, 2006

CITRIX CUTS DISTRIBUTOR TECH DATA
Data

Citrix products continue to be available through distributors Ingram Micro and Alternative Technology, and Citrix hinted more distribution changes are coming. The company issued a statement attributed to Bill Burley, area vice president of North American channel sales, that said, “With the evolution of our product set from one to 10 products spanning new market segments, we have to make corresponding adjustments to our distribution strategy. Look for exciting additions to our distribution channel that will help us gain net new partners and get traction in new markets.”

Meanwhile, Tech Data is working on a transition plan that includes both helping solution providers find other suppliers and introducing them to other product lines, said Bob O’Malley, senior vice president of U.S. marketing at Tech Data. “Obviously we’re cooperating in this. There are provisions for inventory transition. Some we might sell, some we might need to return,” O’Malley said.

KUMAR PLEADS GUILTY TO FRAUD AND OBSTRUCTION CHARGES
Former CA chief executive Sanjay Kumar pleaded guilty to securities fraud and obstruction of justice charges in a federal courthouse in New York last Monday, a spokesman for Kumar said.

“Kumar [April 24] pleaded guilty to the charges brought against him,” the spokesman said. “He told the court that he takes full responsibility for his actions and apologized for them. Mr. Kumar is now focused on helping his family get through this difficult period.”

Kumar and co-defendant Stephen Richards, once a top CA sales executive, each entered guilty pleas. The two men initially entered pleas of not guilty. During the proceeding last Monday, Kumar acknowledged his participation in the $2.2 billion accounting fraud that has rocked the company and much of its senior management.

“I know my conduct was wrong ... I apologize for my actions,” Kumar said, reading from a written statement in court.

IPANEMA TECHNOLOGIES OPENS FOR BUSINESS IN NORTH AMERICA
Ipanema Technologies, a French application traffic management company, launched North American operations with plans to sell exclusively through channels.

Ipanema is recruiting VARs, network integrators and service providers to sell products and services based on Ipanema System, its application acceleration and WAN optimization platform for large enterprises. It plans to sell 100 percent through the channel, said Vargha Moayed, executive vice president of Ipanema.

The company’s Ipanema System includes two pieces, central management software and distributed hardware devices, which together help ensure the availability of important applications such as ERP and VoIP, Moayed said. The average partner equipment sale comes in at $200,000 per deal, he said.

“Our system at the end of the day guarantees the performance of critical applications, regardless of what’s going on in the network,” he said. Ipanema most directly competes with Packeteer, but also counts vendors such as Riverbed and Juniper Networks among its rivals, he said.

Ipanema has just begun its recruiting efforts and has not yet signed any North American partners, though it does have relationships overseas with partners that have a U.S. presence, such as Dimension Data and Getronics, he said.

The company’s North American partner program includes three levels, Basic Partner, Business Partner and Premier Partner, which are differentiated by how many staff members have been trained and what level of competency the organization has achieved through certifications, Moayed said.

Top-level Premier Partners also are qualified to provide managed services based on the Ipanema platform, he said.

Through NCR, Ipanema also offers 24-hour support services, which channel partners can resell if they choose.

AVOCENT PURCHASES LANDESK SOFTWARE FOR $416 MILLION
LANDesk Software is being bought by Avocent for $416 million.

The network client management and security products from LANDesk will give Avocent tools that prevent network problems, something that perfectly accentuates Avocent’s suite of out-of-band network recovery and management tools, said Steve Daly, senior vice president of corporate strategy at Avocent.

The deal is expected to close in about two months, and LANDesk will likely operate as an independent division of Avocent, according to LANDdesk.

Combined, integrated product offerings will arrive, but it is still too early to provide details of those products, Daly said. Avocent will continue to support the existing install base of LANDesk products, Daly said. A deal struck in August 2005 between LANDesk and Lenovo that offers LANDesk partners incentives to bundle Lenovo PCs with LANDesk sales will stay intact, he said.

FABIASCHI REPLACES ASLETT AS CEO OF ENTERASYS NETWORKS
Enterasys Networks has named Michael Fabiaschi president and CEO in a move that marks a homecoming of sorts for the high-tech veteran.

Fabiaschi replaces Mark Aslett, who left Enterasys “to pursue other interests,” according to the networking and security company, which announced the move late last Tuesday.

Aslett had been with Enterasys since 2003, when he joined the company as president. He was named CEO in February 2005.

Fabiaschi most recently served as senior vice president at CA, which he joined in 2005 via CA’s acquisition of network management vendor Concord Communications. Before that, Fabiaschi was president and CEO of Aprisma, which was spun out from Enterasys in 2002, bought by The Gores Group and then sold to Concord in 2005.

The Gores Group now owns Enterasys after teaming with Tennenbaum Capital Partners to buy it and take it private in a $386 million deal completed in March.

TREND MICRO VIRUSWALL ENFORCER APPLIANCE AVAILABLE
Trend Micro this week is unveiling an appliance with integrated network access control.

The Network VirusWall Enforcer appliance scans devices and ensures that security software and patches are up to date before allowing them to connect to the network, and is designed to help companies handle security issues associated with mobile and guest users, said Malav Patel, global product marketing manager at Trend Micro.

The appliance adds new features to the Network VirusWall Enforcer NAC appliance Trend introduced two years ago, including improved policy enforcement and the ability to filter network traffic to automatically block worms, Patel said. “Our NAC-in-a-box solution doesn’t require a pre-installed agent for policy enforcement,” he said.

The Network VirusWall Enforcer will be available in June and priced starting at $14,995.