Rafael Tripero,
CZECH REPUBLIC
ENTERPRISE NEWS
Maltese delight at new IT possibilities Brocade to build
MALTA
“The second one is to do with capacity. The
in eastern Europe
other is old and limited to 2.5 Gbit/s but this one
PAN-EUROPEAN network operator Interoute has a huge increase of capacity available. The IT
and Maltese telecom provider GO have signed industry is hungry and we need a lot of capacity.
EUROPE
an agreement allowing Malta to join up a second The IT industry can say that we have software BROCADE’S first quarter of 2008 was a slight
submarine cable with Italy and the rest of Europe. developers in Malta. We can have call centres and a revenue miss offset by higher gross margins,
The ‘GO 1 Mediterranean Cable System’ project hosting of servers” revenue of $348m (€234.3m). But it also announced
will increase Malta’s existing available capacity by Lorenzo Ravaglia believes that the second that it would be opening a new manufacturing
nine times and is expected to be completed by the submarine cable have a hugely positive influence and distribution centre in eastern Europe. On
fourth quarter. on the Maltese IT industry. “With this new cable the figures, more than offsetting the shortfall in
The project is being entrusted to an we can delete the effect of the distance. Educated services revenues were higher gross margins, up 2%,
international consortium made up of Alcatel- engineers can find work here without being due to very strong Director sales and software.
Lucent and Elettra. The multi-million Euro deal will forced abroad. We can be the harbour of the In terms of demand, Brocade says enterprise
benefit Malta by using Interoute’s pan-European Mediterranean.” growth remained solid. By geography, North
network of 85 cities in 22 countries, currently the Alcatel-Lucent will design, manufacture and America was up sequentially, while APAC and
largest in Europe, through a 54,000 km cable. commission the submarine cable system, based Europe continue to be very strong.
The cable will be 290 km long with four fibre on its Dense Wavelength Division Multiplexing Richard Deranleau, CFO says “In our core SAN
pairs and land from St Paul’s Bay in Malta to Mazara (DWDM) technology and cables which can be easily or datacentre infrastructure or DCI segment,
del Vallo in Italy. It will improve diversity, resiliency upgraded in the future in a cost-effective manner. revenues were up 3% quarter-over-quarter and
and international broadband connectivity for Specialist submarine cable network company 43% year-over-year. Director revenues were up
Malta’s communications and will help increase Elettra will be responsible for the marine survey 13% quarter-over-quarter and 69% year-over-
Malta’s aim of being a centre for excellence in and laying of the cable. year. International demand for our DCI products
Information and Communications Technology. remained strong.”
OUR ANALYSIS
Lorenzo Ravaglia, Interoute’s Country Manager Over the last three quarters, normalizing for
for Italy and the Mediterranean, says that the deal With the recent problems in India after a major those large OEMs [intake] delivery of international
with the “dominant player with a high market internet cable was severed, the need for a destined product within the US has grown from
share”, Go, will have two main benefits. secondary cable could not be more urgent. Though 50% to 57% of total revenues. “Because of this
“One is to have a service up and running” he it will be difficult for it to be the centre of demand, we plan to open a new manufacturing
says. You cannot have a fault that takes one week Europe’s Mediterranean IT industry, the new cable and distribution center in eastern Europe through
or two weeks to be repaired. When the wire broke will help maintain Malta’s connections with the rest our partnership with Foxconn in Q3 ‘08. This will
between India and Europe, it was a disaster. We of Europe. Coming along with its use of the Euro further increase our ability to service our European
provide alternatives. If one cable breaks there will less than two months ago, the curve is clearly going market and improve the cost efficiency of our
be no delay.” up for the 400,000 strong country. supply chain.” www.brocade.com
Xsigo launches European partner hunt, Computacenter signed up
EUROPE
and resellers to SIs.
“We’ve got to concentrate on all types [of
I/O VIRTUALISATION vendor Xsigo is on the partner]. The distributors know how to capture
lookout for channel partners to help it break into a market. We shouldn’t be closing any doors on
the UK, Benelux, Nordic and German markets. possible opportunities,” says Goodridge. “Initially
Having already recruited distributor DNS for we’re looking for traction in the UK and Germany,
the UK and IT services player Eutelia in Italy, the but I also see massive potential in the Nordics.”
vendor has now revealed a partnership with large- Although cool on the company’s immediate
account reseller (LAR) Computacenter to cover the prospects in less mature markets, COO Haley does
UK and Germany. point out the recent partnership agreement with
Although around 30% of sales in the US are Eutelia in Italy.
direct, Xsigo COO Steven Haley (left) promises Haley adds that Xsigo is also looking to partner
all of its European business will go through its with European OEMs with annual revenues around
three-pronged indirect channel: hosted services the $100m (€67.3m) mark. www.xsigo.com
providers, resellers and integrators, and larger
OUR ANALYSIS
OEMs like HP and EMC.
According to UK boss Paul Goodridge, Xsigo One disti Xsigo is unlikely to partner with is
is going to be “very choosy” during its partner Magirus, after the German player sold its HP and
recruitment - but adds that the vendor is looking IBM unit. But the vendor says it will pursue an “eco-
at all types of channel players, from distributors system” relationship with the VAD.
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