Brocade-Ruckus Restructuring

Brocade Channel Chief Sandra Glaser Cheek conceded that a reorganization in May has "caused disruption" and "confusion" for partners, but pledged that the company is focused on resolving the sales engagement issues as "quickly as possible through proactive communications and personal outreach to partners."

The changes effectively moved the networking vendor from a single sales organization with clear account engagement to a sales model with three business units and 11 geographic regions with multiple account managers.

The reorganization is aimed at ensuring a smooth transition in the wake of the pending sale later this year of Brocade's networking and Ruckus wireless business respectively to Extreme Networks and Arris.

"I can imagine that this reorganization that we're having has caused some disruption for our partners, but we've taken proactive steps ahead of the acquisition so that we can ensure as smooth as possible a transition when they do close," said Cheek (pictured), vice president of Worldwide Channels for Brocade and winner of CRN's 2016 Channel Madness tournament, in an interview with CRN.