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Avnet Technology Solutions opens THE [resource] in Warrington to provide a meeting and proof of concept centre in the north of England for Business Partners and Vendors

Avnet Technology Solutions UK, a part of Avnet Inc, the global value-added distributor of enterprise-computing products, software and services has opened THE [resource] in the north of England.  THE [resource] will provide meeting and training rooms, informal discussion areas, a data centre and solutions room.  The centre is designed to encourage interaction between sales, marketing, technical and senior management within Avnet's business partners, their end-user customers and vendors. 

Business partners will have the ability to replicate a customer's technology environment and work with Avnet technical consultants to differentiate themselves by proving the solution works and is right for the customer's own situation. 

Wayne Gratton, Director of Technology at Avnet Technology Solutions said, "Many of Avnet's vendors have main demonstrations in THE [resource] in Bracknell but there are fewer similar facilities for business partners in the north.  This centre provides business partners and vendors with a very accessible northern location for training, meetings, technical demonstrations and events.  We are also introducing a number of new demonstrations in terms of mobile communications, desktop innovation, intelligent storage management and virtualisation. As a result we expect to see increased initiatives in these areas supported by Avnet and multiple vendors."

A major enhancement in THE [resource] has been a 10 fold increase in bandwidth which allows a greater number of real-life applications to be shown, for example, simultaneous demonstrations running video at the same time as real-time data replication for business continuity and disaster recovery solutions.  There is also remote access allowing virtual proof of concept (POC) and benchmarking, virtual training and Webex showcases via a VPN to allow business partners access from a choice of locations and the ability to work in a totally secure area. 

Wayne Gratton continued, "We are not simply replicating THE [resource] in Bracknell in Warrington.  Our goal is to have both facilities as virtual centres, so everything in Bracknell can be accessed from Warrington and vice versa. We have been conscious of meeting green initiatives by not burning power unnecessarily through duplication; the use of provisioning has aided our ability to do this. Finally having two centres brings the added benefit of being able to simulate distributed systems.  The whole concept is very powerful and will set Avnet business partners apart from the rest, wherever they are located."

THE [resource] in Warrington will be the only Nortel Executive Briefing Centre in the north of England. THE [resource] in the north and south are both part of the worldwide Sun's Solutions Centre community.  Both facilities are free of charge to business partners and can be booked via a partner's Avnet Account Manager or Technical Account Manager.   

ENDS

More Detail on Technology and Demonstrations Available in THE [resource] Warrington.

Example Practices

• Desktop innovation
• Sun centric data centre
• Open storage
• Unified communications
• Networking and security

Vendors

SUN

• Desktop
• Storage
• Servers
• Virtualisation
• Software
• OS platform

Symantec

• File system
• Archiving
• Compliance
• Back up
• Security
• Infrastructure operations
• Information risk & compliance
• Storage
• Business continuity

Commvault

• Simpana based solutions
• Archive
• Bckup & recovery
• Replication
• Reporting & resource management

EMC

• EMC's content addressable storage solutions for Commvault

Nortel

• Nortel unified communications solution
• Incorporating Nortel CS1K - VoiP/telephony solutions
• Microsoft Office Communications Server & exchange
• This is all underpinned with a Nortel core switching infrastructure

F5

• Loadbalancers
• Firepass
• Wanjet - WAN acceleration

Juniper

• Firewalls - SSG
• SA - SSL VPN technology
• EX range of switches
• WXC - WAN acceleration & optimisation

Wyse

• Thin client solutions as part of desktop Innovation

TANDBERG

• Visual & unified communications solutions
• Integrated communications solutions

ShoreTel

• Telephony and desktop unified communications solutions
• Integrated Microsoft Office Communications Server solutions
• IBM Sametime communications solutions

Audiocodes

• Unified communications gateways

About Avnet Technology Solutions

Avnet Technology Solutions is an operating group of Phoenix-based Avnet, Inc. As a global technology sales and marketing organization, Avnet Technology Solutions has sales divisions focused on specific customer segments and a select line card strategy enabling an exceptional level of attention to the needs of its customers and suppliers. For fiscal year 2008, the group served customers in more than 30 countries and generated US $7.6 billion in annual revenue. 

Visit: www.ts.avnet.com/emea/

About Avnet Inc

Avnet, Inc. (NYSE:AVT), a Fortune 500 company, is one of the largest distributors of electronic components, computer products and embedded technology in the world. Avnet accelerates its partners' success by connecting the world's leading technology suppliers with a broad base of more than 100,000 customers and providing cost-effective, value-added services and solutions. For the fiscal year ended June 28, 2008, Avnet generated revenue of $17.95 billion. For more information, visit www.avnet.com

For more information please contact:

Avnet Technology Solutions
Linda Patterson, Marketing Director
T: +44 (0)1344 662091
E: Linda.patterson@avnet.com