Silver Peak comes to New Zealand

Optimiser inks distie, reseller deals

By Simon Eskow, Auckland | Friday, 04 March 2011
Silver Peak Systems, a US-based provider of wide area network (WAN) optimisation products, has established a foothold in New Zealand as part of its expansion in the Asia-Pacific market.

The company finalised partnerships with value-add distributor Observatory Crest, and Asnet, a Wellington-based reseller and provider of security and networking infrastructure.

Silver Peak settled both deals in the first half of February, according to Wayne Neich, the company’s recently-appointed manager for Australia and New Zealand.

The partnerships came to light when Silver Peak announced the opening of offices in Sydney and Melbourne, where it will base sales, support and marketing initiatives on both sides of the Tasman.

Neich, who set up the Australia/New Zealand business of his former employer, networking vendor Blue Coat, says Silver Peak uses a two-tier, value-add and distributor channel model.

“We took a lot into consideration as to who we appointed,” Neich says.

“The key factors for me in selecting Observatory Crest were they have a very successful business in the New Zealand datacentre and networking market place, they have got focused, highly-skilled sales and engineering people [and] their ability to invest in demonstration equipment and training to support the channel.”

Neich says the distributor’s presence in the Australian market was a benefit, and its existing relationship with Asnet helped to appoint that reseller.

Silver Peak is already looking to expand its nascent New Zealand channel by attracting other networking based resellers and storage integrators, including customers that have used Juniper, Riverbed or Blue Coat products, Neich says.

The company is holding “awareness sessions” – thirty-minute product demonstrations – in the week of March 14 for potential partners in Wellington and Auckland.