Recently I sat down with Vivek Pathela the VP of Marketing at Netgear and he shared some of the recent happenings at the company. For example Netgear recently rolled out a new NAS solution which is based on technology from a company they recently acquired called Infrant.
NAS for the SMB with built-in RAID is somewhat interesting to me but what is really worth coverage is the approach the company takes to their NAS solution. They have focused on keeping NAS simple to operate.
Netgear is known for having products that work well in the field and they are embracing SMB telephony with the hope of bringing their easy to use mindset to the world of telecom. The company has partnered with Avaya to resell the New Jersey-based telecom leader’s one-x Quick Edition line of solutions.
Why is the edition quick you ask? That is a very good question. Now if I were thinking, I might have even asked this question in the interview. In my opinion “quick” refers to the ability of the solution to be set up very quickly.
This edition of the phone by the way is the p2p-based solution Avaya purchased from Nimcat Networks. As you may recall, I have discussed how the computer channel would be embracing p2p-based solutions in the future. The time has come. Avaya was smart enough to pick up Nimcat before they got purchased by someone else. The telecom company is now benefiting from the computer and networking industry’s interest in VoIP.
Getting back to the solution, there are three configurations to choose from:
- Up to 20 users in an office
- 10 office workers and 10 teleworkers
- 2 office locations and teleworkers in distributed small sites
Avaya provides telecom support and training in addition to the phones. This training is aimed at data VARs.
Really what we are seeing here is Avaya’s answer to the Linksys One solution where a simple package can be rolled out easily to data VARs worldwide.
Vivek wastes no time in pointing out this solution allows you to use SIP trunking and subsequently does not lock you into a single provider like the Linksys One solution.
I asked about what happens when a company grows to need 21 stations and the answer was Netgear is focusing on perfecting this solution for now and will eventually rollout systems with larger capacities.
Other areas the company is working on is a common distribution system allowing VARs to order Netgear and Avaya products simultaneously from a single resource.
So what’s my take? This is a great move for Avaya because it allows the company to encroach on the turf of Linksys. This is also great for data VARs because they are able to roll out telephony without having the intricate knowledge of telecom.
This solution is either good or bad for interconnects. An interconnect who reads this article and is exploring providing IP solutions such as these is in good shape. The rest of the market that hasn’t kept up will be soon wiped away by interconnects who get it and data VARs looking for new sources of revenue.
As has been the case in telecom for the last decade or so… Technology is changing how resellers sell and what customers want. Resellers need to get ahead of this curve or get steamrolled.
Be sure to follow the Avaya News page on TMCnet to track the potential acquisition of the company which is reported to be happening soon.
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