Brocade in 2015 and 2016

Due to a combination of factors like increased engagement with customers and joint industry events with tech partners, Brocade Malaysia is boasting successful 2015 with more revenue and more momentum in the public sector, manufacturing and transportation industries.

According to Country Manager Sean Ong, Brocade’s Ethernet Fabric solution had its best showing in four years, with an attach rate of over 50-percent; for every two switches sold, one was an Ethernet Fabric solution.

Sean Ong

Ong said, “This demand came from existing customers who are expanding.”

Despite a challenging year due to the introduction of GST and a lowering Ringgit currency value against the US dollar, the channel ecosystem rallied together with Brocade Malaysia to absorb rising costs and share the burden.

2016 – getting ready for 2020

A predictions piece by Brocade saw them seeing more use of software-defined networking (SDN) and network functions virtualisation (NFV).

According to Southeast Asia Regional Director Beni Sia, Brocade had been preparing for the eventuality of more scalable, flexible-to-provision and user-centric services, thanks to SDN and NFV, by being on the acquisition trail and pouring more money into software and virtual type deployments, the past 18 months.

Sia said, “Last year was the inflection point where physical appliances growth will start to decline and virtual appliances growth will start to accelerate.”

Brocade acquisitions like Riverbed’s virtual application delivery controller (ADC), virtual EPC (evolved packet core) Connectem and visibility and analytics solutions for mobile operators, Vistapointe, all reflect Brocade’s marked interest to leverage the Internet of Things (IoT) trend, in the mobile network operator space.

Brocade has recognised that mobile network operators are struggling to keep pace with mercurial customer needs and market opportunities and predicted that they would be compelled to take on SDN and NFV in 2016. Not only is this acceptance integral for operators to keep up, but also necessary if they are ever to have a chance of winning in the IoT industry and being viable players in the 5G race by 2020.

Sia admitted to having to engage the channel to be ready for these industry shifts, as they mean architectural changes which has different deployment methods and processes.

“This is an industry that is 30 to 40 years old. We want to go into new markets, where we see new opportunities. And our new acquisitions like Connectem and Vyatta have (capabilities) to address them.”

He concluded that being an end-to-end provider is an end goal, but the market may not be ready to do it. “There has to be appetite to change internally.”