- Top customer challenges cited were managing network complexity and data center bandwidth
- Customers are poised to adopt New IP-ready technologies to transform their businesses in 2015
Brocade today announced the results of its annual channel survey, which 
was completed by more than 570 Brocade distributors and resellers. The survey was conducted to better understand the networking needs of customers and learn how Brocade can help its partners provide more strategic solutions. The results show that there is an opportunity for the channel to seize a competitive advantage in the industry by strategically advising global enterprises and organizations on software networking, virtualization, and the cloud by way of the Brocade® product portfolio: from the Brocade Vyatta® vRouter to VCS® Fabric technology.
The channel partners noted many challenges and trends in 2014—the most prevalent of the challenges partners saw customers facing in 2014 included managing network complexity, and meeting data center bandwidth and availability requirements. Partners also estimated that their customers’ data centers will be mostly virtualized in the next 12 months, and Brocade’s guidance plays a large role in this prediction.
“In 2015, our focus is on equipping Brocade partners to lead the transformation in networking to the New IP — delivering exceptional customer experiences that leverage software networking while optimizing customers’ existing networks,” said Edgar Dias, Regional Director, India at Brocade. “In the coming year, we’re investing in providing the building blocks for cloud offerings so that partners can deliver networking solutions covering both cloud and on-premise solutions.”
Top 5 Global Survey Findings Include:
1. According to partners surveyed, the most apparent network challenges for customers in 2014 were:
- Forty-seven percent believe managing complexity is a top challenge
- Forty-one percent believe dealing with data center bandwidth and availability is a top challenge
2.According to partners, technology differentiation is the most important factor when it comes to selecting a vendor, followed by market-proven solutions and vision/strategy
3.Sixty percent of partners said Software-Defined Networking (SDN) and Network Functions Virtualization (NFV) will be a significant trend for all resellers within 24 months
4.Eighty percent of partners said that they/their customers are already deploying, or will be evaluating, SDN/NFV within the next 12 months
5.Two thirds of partners surveyed estimate that customers’ data centers will be virtualized by more than 50 percent within 12 months
“The modern era of social, mobile, cloud, and Big Data imposes new requirements on the underlying infrastructure that legacy network architectures were not designed to support. In order for channel partners to remain relevant in this new world they must expand their networking practices to include offerings that address the requirements of the New IP,” said Jason Nolet, Brocade Vice President of Switching, Routing, and Analytics products. “These offerings include future-proof technologies, including Brocade VDX® switches with VCS Fabric technology, to natively automate the network in order to reduce complexity, network layers, and manual configuration tasks.”
Methodology
The research, conducted by Brocade via an anonymous online SurveyGizmo survey, was cast among a wide range of individuals at partner organizations. The majority of respondents were from sales (43 percent) and tech (42 percent) job functions, with the remaining respondents in executive level (8 percent) and marketing (6 percent) functions.
Participation by Global Region
Americas 47% (268)
EMEA 40% (231)
Japan 8% (48)
APAC 5% (27)
