October 30, 2012

Brocade Invests in Accelerating Channel Time to Revenue

New Programs Introduced to Align With Partners' Changing Business Models

SAN JOSE, CA -- (Marketwire) -- 10/30/12 -- As Brocade (NASDAQ: BRCD) partners evolve their business models in response to customer demand for virtualization, cloud, data center consolidation and professional services, the Brocade® Alliance Partner Network (APN) has adapted to provide an easy-to-navigate program to accelerate time to revenue. By delivering focused resources and aggressively competitive incentives, Brocade helps partners deliver on their business strategies, enhance their brand and build their technical expertise.

The new resources include an online partner portal to centralize management of all resources and assets, an online configuration tool, online pre-sales training and new marketing and sales asset development resources. Brocade has streamlined the point-of-sale processes, and will be increasing rebate caps and incentives on IP networking sales focused on driving new customer growth.

"The Brocade Alliance Partner Networking program makes it easy and straightforward for us to manage our business with Brocade, allowing us to focus our resources on growing our revenues. The APN solutions provide our sales team with the tools necessary to give us a competitive edge, by enabling fast but professional communication with customers from early engagement through to building a successful long-term relationship," said Jennifer Beck, senior development manager at Walker and Associates.

Faster Time to Revenue with Technical Enablement Solutions
Brocade is making enhanced configuration tools available to partners, in addition to the total cost of ownership (TCO) calculators, the Brocade BMI Configurator and inclusion in the Netformx Design Expert tool. The online product configurator tool will provide easy-to-use configurations to provide initial comparisons and compatibility reviews. The tool is designed to facilitate early discussions with customers and accelerate the sales process.

Simplified Management with a Single Point of View
Brocade is launching APN Central, a portal that provides partners with a single online location for all deal information and program updates, along with access to all marketing, sales and pre-sales tools. APN Central helps partners easily manage their marketing development funds (MDF), deal registration, lead management, education and configuration needs. These new capabilities also allow partners to view business plans, check program compliance and provide direct access to the new and improved sales and marketing tools to more effectively drive growth and target revenue opportunities.

Driving Demand with New Sales and Marketing Resources
As part of Brocade Grid, three new online resources will now be available to support partners in their efforts to drive sales and build their own brand. The marketing hub, Brocade pre-sales training and the sales kit provide ready-to-use assets for demand generation, information blasts, product information, sales and training and seminars-in-a-box that can be co-branded and personalized. Brocade is also providing enablement funding to new Elite and Premier level partners, and has developed "kick-start" campaigns that can be quickly and easily tailored. By utilizing these self-service marketing solutions, partners can access advertising, marketing programs and assets to easily extend their reach and attract both net-new and current customers to accelerate revenue growth.

"Channel organizations want networking solutions that provide differentiation and that help them build their professional services revenues quickly and easily. Brocade delivers this through Brocade Ethernet fabrics, The Effortless Network™ vision for campus solutions and Brocade Network Subscription," said Regan McGrath, vice president of Worldwide Channel Sales and Marketing at Brocade. "With this wide range of innovative networking solutions and easy-to-use online tools, we are giving our partners the assets and support they need to build their brand, drive sales and ultimately accelerate their revenue growth."

The Brocade Alliance Partner Network has three levels of membership (Select, Premier and Elite) and a distribution category. It offers partners qualified leads, sales support and technical education in addition to a wide range of self-service marketing tools, enablement portals and training and education programs to help partners develop and tailor their business models to their particular needs.

For more information about the Brocade APN, please visit:
www.brocade.com/apn or community.brocade.com/community/brocadeblogs/thechannel

About Brocade
Brocade (NASDAQ: BRCD) networking solutions help the world's leading organizations transition smoothly to a world where applications and information reside anywhere. (www.brocade.com)

ADX, Brocade, Brocade Assurance, Brocade One, the B-wing symbol, DCX, Fabric OS, ICX, MLX, MyBrocade, SAN Health, VCS, and VDX are registered trademarks, and AnyIO, HyperEdge, NET Health, OpenScript, and The Effortless Network are trademarks of Brocade Communications Systems, Inc., in the United States and/or in other countries. Other brands, products, or service names mentioned may be trademarks of their respective owners.

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BROCADE CONTACTS

Channel PR & AR

Dawn Morris

Tel: +44 (0) 208 432 5234

dawn.morris@brocade.com



Investor Relations

Robert Eggers

Tel: +1 408 333 8797

reggers@brocade.com

Source: Brocade

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