The battle in the converged networking space gets fiercer with Brocade entering the arena with its Brocade One architecture after Cisco’s UCS and Juniper’s Project Status launch. Mostly an OEM-led player, Brocade now seems serious with its direct go-to- market approach. To strengthen its India distribution, Brocade has signed on Redington for its Brocade One and IP-range of products. For its SAN range of connectivity products, Brocade will continue to work with Renaissance Softech and Transition Systems.Executing on the Brocade One architecture, Brocade will also offer a comprehensive suite of solutions (in support of converged fabrics and Ethernet networking) that includes new product offerings, support and professional consulting services under Brocade Converged Fabric Services. The products will include virtual cluster switching (VCS) switches, an operating system called Brocade Network OS, and several management tools. VCS is capable of supporting up to 10,000 virtual machines and roughly 1,000 10G ports.A new diagnostic and assessment utility called Brocade NET Health has been introduced for customers to gauge the efficiency of their networks and measure them against industry-best practices. The company has also introduced a new training and certification program designed to educate Brocade customers and partners about unified fabric technologies.

All of the new converged fabric products and services will be available by Q12011.Brocade will leverage Redington’s SI relationships to promote the suite of products under Brocade One. “While we will lead in creating demand for converged networking by doing CIO events and direct marketing, we will also leverage Redington’s reach to jointly market our products,” said Ashis Guha, Country Manager, Brocade. In addition, the company will use Redington to reach tier-2 and tier-3 cities.Brocade will be launching a comprehensive training program for its partners for the new product range. “This will cover not just the IP partners but also the traditional SAN partners, thus leveraging the company’s entire partner ecosystem to sell its converged networking portfolio,” informed Guha.Brocade further announced a range of HP-branded Brocade 8Gbps Fibre Channel data center and server connectivity products, and a virtualization solution bundle. The new solution includes Brocade 8Gbps Fibre Channel HBA for HP BladeSystem cClass, HP StorageWorks P2000 G3 modular smart array virtualization SAN starter kit, and HP Storage-Works B-series Data Center SAN Director 64-port 8Gbps Fibre Channel blade.

In 2010 Canon aims to garner a topline of Rs 1,200 crore as compared to last year’s turnover of Rs 840 crore. It is expecting a large chunk of this growth to come from its Consumer Systems Product (CSP) division which aims to grow at 60 percent to achieve a turnover target of Rs 450 crore in 2010.“We have maintained our market leadership in the laser printer single function category for almost nine months, and have also gained a strong foothold in the laser multifunction category. However, we are not swayed by our success and will continue to penetrate deeper into the market,” said VP Sajeevan, Director, CSP, Canon India.The company recently launched 15 new Wi-Fi printers and MFDs with new features and technology advancements. “We intend to capture 50 percent share in the Wi-Fi printing space by the end of this year. Our Wi-Fi portfolio has already grown by 100 percent quarter-on-quarter since the launch in Q3 FY2009-10. To strengthen our grip in this space, we plan to launch 100 PIXMA Wi-Fi printing zones across 12 cities by the end of 2010. These Wi-Fi printing zones will be shops-in-shops at our leading retailers. The zones will display and demo the entire range of our PIXMA Wi-Fi printers and AIOs in line with the company’s campaign of Print from Anywhere,” added Sajeevan. 

Canon recently launched the Canon Image Express which consists of a caravan of six re-modeled Canters which opens up to 4,800 sq ft of floating showroom space and displays over 80 products. “This is the largest road campaign done by any company in India. The caravan will travel across 38 cities over the next 12 months. In the first few weeks since the rollout it has clocked 25,000 footfalls and garnered a revenue of Rs 1 crore,” disclosed Sajeevan.Starting July, Canon will kick-start another consumer campaign (called Smiley) to offer value-adds to the consumer. These would include additional warranty for up to one year on certain models, and surprise gifts including an Apple iPod every week. Apart from offering benefits to the consumer, Canon will offer reward points to partners whenever they get a customer to register his purchase.

In a bid to further its Converged Infrastructure strategy, HP recently launched new datacenter switch HP A5820.  The switch includes a new Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE) module and is designed to improve application availability, increase deployment flexibility and lower the overall total cost of ownership (TCO) of the network infrastructure.“Traditional data center networks are rigid, complex and expensive. As such, they are unable to keep pace with the increasing use of server virtualization and rapid changes in business demands”, said Subhodeep Bhattacharya, Country Manager, HP Networking, HP India.  “HP FCoE is an emerging technology that reduces network complexity, as well as costs, while complementing traditional Fibre Channel and iSCSI storage connectivity solutions”, he added.The FCoE module for the HP A5820 data center switches and connects virtual and physical servers to Ethernet and storage networks. HP claims that the new solution will significantly simplify connectivity and reduce costs where the bulk of the complexity exists—at the server edge.

Pure-play semiconductor foundries are expected to do even better in 2010 than originally forecast thanks to resurgent demand for consumer electronics products, according to a new report from iSuppli. The industry researcher this week raised its revenue forecast for contract semiconductor manufacturers to $29.8 billion, a 42.3 percent increase over 2009’s 22.1 billion.The California-based research firm had earlier projected a 39.5 percent year-over-year revenue increase for the pure-play semiconductor foundry industry, led by foundry giants like Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC) and United Microelectronics Corp (UMC).“Consumer spending has come back with a vengeance following a dramatic downturn in the fourth quarter of 2008 and for all of 2009,” said Len Jelinek, Director and Chief Analyst, Semiconductor Manufacturing, iSuppli, in a statement.The forecast excluded in-house revenue generated by semiconductor manufacturers like Intel and Samsung, which design and produce semiconductors for their own use, also known as Independent Device Manufacturers (IDMs)—though they indicated that whatever contract work was conducted by IDMs was included.

Starting from the baseline of $26.8 billion in 2008 revenue, pure-play foundry sales will enjoy a 9.4 percent Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) through to 2014, according to iSuppli’s forecast, resulting in an expectation of $45.9 billion in revenue for the industry in that year.Foundry revenue slipped to $22.1 billion in the recessionary year of 2009, according to the research firm. Resurgent consumer demand should see sales rebound to close to $30 billion this year, then climb to $33.7 billion in 2011, $36.8 billion in 2012, $40.6 billion in 2013, and then eclipse $45 billion in 2014.The research firm said it was holding to its prediction that foundries would spend 123 percent more on equipment in 2010 than they did in 2009 as semiconductor companies invested in advanced manufacturing processes.One result of the increased push to future technologies was that companies seeking increased capacity for legacy semiconductor products would not be able to find it, according to iSuppli.Jelinek also said that China had not done enough in the recessionary period to expand its semiconductor industry or differentiate its technology to maintain its edge as a low-cost supplier of silicon.“The era may be coming to an end when fabless suppliers look to China for low-cost manufacturing that could be used as leverage to obtain lower pricing from other foundries,” he said. “With no significant manufacturing expansions in China during the past two years, and with no major capacity increases forecasted for this year, this prediction may come true quickly.”

Arista Networks has entered into a distribution agreement with Netweb Technologies to distribute its product range in the Indian market. The three-year old vendor focuses on 10Gb networking and opportunities in cloud and data center space."Arista is one of the most promising enterprise networking vendor. We expect customers in India to readily accept the products. With 10Gb prices dropping to less than $500 per switch port, we are betting on faster adoption of 10Gb in the country," said Sandeep Lodha, Director, Netweb Technologies.Netweb, which focuses on high performance computing and storage, claims to have the largest installed based for HPC solutions in the country. "We expect a number of our HPC customers to upgrade to 10Gb soon," said Lodha. "We have also started discussions with other systems integrators and networking specialists in India about reselling Arista product line, and the response has been good," he added.

CA Technologies has launched a new recovery and data management software under its ArcServe brand. Termed the ArcServe D2D, the software is targeted at business-critical servers and aims at providing a robust and reliable backup and recovery solution for the most critical data of enterprise customers.According to Vijayant Rai, Director, Channels, India and Saarc, CA, the company is planning to expand its channel base to support the growing demand for backup and recovery solutions among SMB and mid-market customers. Apart from leveraging its existing over 150 partners, CA will also rope in hardware integrators to sell ArcServe D2D and other solutions from its backup and recovery portfolio.“We have witnessed 30 percent growth in our backup and recovery solutions portfolio despite the challenging economic environment in the last fiscal,” said Rai. “The SMB and mid-market segment is increasingly adopting these solutions as their data grows and they feel the need for reliable data protection technologies. Traditionally, our partners have been predominantly software license resellers. However, to cater to the increased demand from SMBs and mid-market companies, we now aim to broaden our base to involve hardware integrators as well.”In 2010, CA aims to recruit at least 35-40 additional partners, mostly those from a hardware integration background. The company will conduct bootcamps to provide the required knowledge and training to the technical staff of the partners. CA has already conducted a number of roadshows across major metros in India to familiarize partners with ArcServe D2D and other solutions.

The company has also reorganized its portfolio, bringing its XoSoft Availability, XoSoft Replication and DR products under the ArcServe brand. “Keeping in mind the popularity of the ArcServe brand, and in order to have a simpler name, we have reorganized our entire portfolio and named it ArcServe,” explained Rai.

Arista Networks has entered into a distribution agreement with Netweb Technologies to distribute its product range in the Indian market. The three-year old vendor focuses on 10Gb networking and opportunities in cloud and data center space."Arista is one of the most promising enterprise networking vendor. We expect customers in India to readily accept the products. With 10Gb prices dropping to less than $500 per switch port, we are betting on faster adoption of 10Gb in the country," said Sandeep Lodha, Director, Netweb Technologies.Netweb, which focuses on high performance computing and storage, claims to have the largest installed based for HPC solutions in the country. "We expect a number of our HPC customers to upgrade to 10Gb soon," said Lodha. "We have also started discussions with other systems integrators and networking specialists in India about reselling Arista product line, and the response has been good," he added.

Rashi Peripherals has launched a promotional scheme on purchase of specific numbers of AData DRAM modules.The scheme will be valid on purchases made through Rashi Peripherals on all models of AData DRAM modules ranging from Supreme range to its latest gaming and XPG series up to July 15, 2010.In order to qualify for the free gifts the partners will have to ensure that all the DRAMs are billed in a single invoice only.Said Rajesh Goenka, Vice Presiden, Sales and Marketing, Rashi Peripherals, “Through this promotional offer, we are looking at strengthening the rapport between the brand and the channel partners. In addition to this, we are also looking at establishing new partnership for the brand.” 

PC shipments in India will grow at 19.4 percent in 2010, in contrast to a decline of 3.8 percent witnessed in 2009, according to analyst firm Gartner. The main driver behind PC shipment growth will be India’s recovering economy, which is expected to grow 8.5 percent in 2010, added the Gartner report.Gartner expects resurgent demand in industries affected by recession in 2009, to contribute to the forecasted growth in PC shipments in 2010. It also identified small and midsize businesses, government and education as verticals that have increased their spending.Gartner expects the overall Asia-Pacific PC market to grow 20.3 percent in 2010, reaching 114.6 million unit shipments. Spending on PCs in Asia-Pacific is forecast to grow 12.4 percent in 2010, compared to only 2.9 percent in 2009, due to a sharper decline in average selling prices for PCs in 2009.“The improving worldwide economy should lead to better confidence to invest in 2010. In India, PC buyers are now more confident to spend, with employment on the upswing,” said Lillian Tay, Principal Research Analyst, Gartner.

Gartner expects China to represent 60 percent of all PCs shipped in Asia-Pacific and 19 percent of PC shipments worldwide in 2010.Mature PC markets, are also expected to grow strongly in 2010 and 2011 as PC replacements gain momentum. This reflects an expectation of increased IT budgets and adoption of Windows 7 by organizations replacing PCs that are beyond their useful life, according to the Gartner report.Significantly, mobile-for-desk-based PC substitution continues unabated and first-time PC buyers are increasingly turning to mobile PCs, according to Gartner.  Mobile PC units will grow 35.2 percent in 2010 reaching 53.2 million. In 2011, a milestone will be reached where mobile PC shipments will take 51 percent share of all PCs shipped in Asia Pacific, the report stated.

Zyxel Communications has introduced a new NBG 460N wireless and Gigabit router that is eight times faster and offers five times more coverage compared to its predecessor.The device features two IPSec VPN tunnel and a built-in MBM v2 technology for traffic shaping and management. In addition it comes with Wireless Scheduler which can be programmed to switch on/off the the wireless radiation to save the power. The device supports Wi-Fi Protected Setup (WPS) for easy wireless security setup.Rishi Samadhia, Executive Director, Channel, ZyXEL Technologies, said “ZyXEL’s NBG 460N wireless router strengthen the product portfolio by providing corporate consumer base, the overwhelming experience coupled with extreme wireless performance and coverage which is ideal for today’s sophisticated corporate users.”

“This router not only delivers high speed connection but also consumes less power due to its energy saving features so that it can be perfect choice for setting up an secure and  hassle free connection,” added Pinaki Chatterjee, Executive Director, Technical, ZyXEL Technologies India.Priced at Rs 13,500, it is available with Zyxel's authorized distributors.