Avnet Teams With Blade.org Consortium

From July 1 to August 31, the Phoenix-based distributor will evaluate the marketing and business strategies of Blade.org members, particularly those targeting ISVs. The Blade.org consortium is comprised of solution providers, distributors, and vendors including IBM, Intel, AMD, Citrix and VMWare with the intent of promoting blade-based computing.

"We have five strategic technology areas that we're developing practices for: VoIP, consolidation and virtualization, mobility, security and storage. Consultations touch on all of those areas but then target in on the technology space that is most appropriate for the member we're working with," said Sara Jensen, vice president, product marketing, IBM Business Unit, Avnet Technology Solutions, Americas.

"Blade.org has a significant group of venture capitalists involved looking at [its member] companies," said Jensen, "and Avnet is going to look at ways to take a fledgling ISV that's looking for a market and help them accelerate their growth and route to market."

The organization also announced this week that it formed a venture capital advisory board to guide standards and innovations in blade solutions.