MOCA Moves To Build Up Its Software Lineup

The Sun Microsystems-focused division, based in El Segundo, Calif., is beefing up its software line card, most recently getting authorized to sell Computer Associates International's Unicenter solutions and BEA Systems' application server solutions.

In addition, MOCA soon expects to be certified to become the first distributor authorized as a training center for Symantec and McAfee's enterprise security solutions.

"You can't define what a solution is unless you can speak the language of software," said Rich Severa, president of MOCA.

Arrow's other divisions, HP-focused SBM and IBM-focused Support Net, also will carry BEA and CA's Unicenter Desktop Management Bundle and Unicenter Desktop DNA products. The distributor already carries CA's eTrust security and Brightstor storage software lines.

About 55 percent of BEA's deployments are in Sun environments, leading to what Severa called a natural affinity between BEA and MOCA, Severa said. "If there's a BEA deployment, the chances are high that there [are] Sun products," he said.

BEA and Sun are a potent combination to go against IBM's WebSphere, Severa said. "Once WebSphere goes in, there is little opportunity for anyone outside IBM. This will have a multiplicative effect on Sun," he said.

Sun's cooperation has helped MOCA bring on new partenrs, Severa said.

"Under [Sun President and COO Jonathan] Schwartz's leadership, Sun has been less combative and more inclusive of strategic partnerships that will bring a wider acceptance of Sun's intellectual property," Severa said.

Solution providers attending MOCA's Net@Work conference earlier this month in Carlsbad, Calif., said Arrow's more robust software lineup will bring added value to their companies.

"Most of us are looking for turnkey systems implementations, and a more rounded product offering makes it that much easier," said Terry Stratton, CEO of SIS Technologies, a solution provider in Houston.

Added Don McDowell, executive vice president of marketing and partner solutions at Logicalis, Schiller Park, Ill.: "The important piece is the recognition that the software solution set is what pulls the business. It shows the importance of software to Arrow's business and takes them outside their normal scope of business."

MOCA invited software-only solution providers to Net@Work for the first time to leverage Sun's platform to those customers.

"Solutions are more than just hardware, and anything that can increase margins and bring more things to the table helps us," said Norm Shockley, president and CEO of Adeara, a Sunnyvale, Calif.-based software-only customer.