Tech Data Promotes Avaya Networking

Tech Data has agreed to distribute Avaya’s entire portfolio of enterprise communications solutions. The news, which surfaced at Tech Data’s TechSelect conference in Miami, reassures VARs that competition remains alive and well in the unified communications market. And it also bodes well for Avaya’s recent buyout of Nortel’s enterprise business. Here’s why.

First, a little background: During a recent Global Distribution Technology Council gathering in New York, multiple distributors expressed strong commitments to Cisco Systems’ Unified Computing System, which converges storage, networking and servers.

The VAR Guy started to wonder: Are distributors betting their networking engagements completely on Cisco? Of course not — distributors ultimately strive to provide customer and partner choice. Hence, Tech Data’s decision to bolster its Avaya portfolio.

According to the expanded Tech Data–Avaya relationship:

Also at Tech Data TechSelect, the distributor rolled out a redesigned Tech Data corporate web site. And Tech Data channel partners attending the conference seem to be zeroing in on such opportunities as virtualization, digital signage and EHR (electronic health records), the distributor says.

Additional reporting by David Courbanou. Sign up for The VAR Guy’s Newsletter; Webcasts and Resource Center; and via RSS; Facebook; Identi.ca; Twitter and VARtweet.