Avnet Partner Solutions and BladeFusion Join Forces on IBM eServer BladeCenter Business Express Solutions

Avnet Partner Solutions, the leading value-added distributor of IBM enterprise computing products, storage, software and services, today announced immediate availability of a unique blade server offering based on IBM eServer BladeCenter Business Express. Avnet Partner Solutions will integrate independent software vendor (ISV) BladeFusion's Secure Production Environment(TM) into the IBM solution bundle. Integration of the BladeFusion offering will enable value-added resellers (VARs) and ISVs to deliver cost-effective, customized business solutions for their small and midsized enterprise customers. The combined solution streamlines a typically complex presales, design, integration and support process and offers bundled solutions that are ideal for a variety of business environments.

"Avnet Partner Solutions has created a seamless design to implementation process for our partners to simplify the sale of IBM eServer BladeCenter Business Express bundles," said Scott Abbott, vice president of business development, Avnet Partner Solutions, IBM Americas. "Avnet Partner Solutions' goal is to help our partners close more business, profitably. By leveraging our relationship with BladeFusion, we are providing our partners with highly specialized services and methodologies that give them a first mover market advantage while delivering exceptional customer service and solution customization."

IBM eServer BladeCenter Business Express is specifically designed for the growing SMB market. Smaller enterprises are embracing blade server technology because it is a flexible, secure and cost-effective platform that can expand with their businesses. BladeFusion's Secure Production Environment increases the system's survivability, security, scalability and serviceability. BladeFusion has pretested Production Ready Applications (PRA) based on IBM Express Middleware products. These PRAs are preloaded on the BladeFusion SPE(TM) repository and can be activated on any number of blades, on-demand. This eliminates the need to manually install, test and configure, and provides resellers and customers with a rapid and reliable path to deliver value using certified production-ready applications.

Thus the platform aids the development of basic configuration bundles that can be built upon to meet specific business needs, such as applications designed for retail, finance and health care businesses. BladeFusion's Secure Production Environment lowers the cost of the solution while raising its overall functionality by taking advantage of BladeCenter's centralized environment. The Secure Production Environment provides self-healing technology for mission critical applications along with increased levels of system monitoring, virtualization, security, load balancing and hot swap capabilities.

"Avnet Partner Solutions and BladeFusion have created a clean and concise blade server solution for value-added resellers and their SMB customers," said Amir Barnea, founder and vice president, products, BladeFusion. "By taking advantage of IBM BladeCenter Business Express' hardware and software building block approach, VARs can quickly assess the needs of their customers and work with Avnet Partner Solutions to design base requirements for the system plus integrate custom applications and services into the total solution. This streamlined process reduces production hassles and improves time to market while delivering a fully functional solution that fits within the budget requirements of smaller businesses."

About Avnet Partner Solutions, Americas

Avnet Partner Solutions, Americas, is an industry-leading, value-added distributor and provider of enterprise servers, storage, software and services, with operations in the United States, Mexico and Canada. Avnet Partner Solutions provides solutions from industry-leading manufacturers including Computer Associates, EMC, HP, IBM, Microsoft, Network Appliance, Oracle, StorageTek and VERITAS -- driving growth for partners and manufacturers. Avnet Partner Solutions is a division of the Avnet Technology Solutions operating group of Avnet Inc. For more information, visit www.aps.avnet.com.

Avnet Inc. (NYSE:AVT - News) enables success from the center of the technology industry, providing cost-effective services and solutions vital to a broad base of more than 100,000 customers and 250 suppliers. The company markets, distributes and adds value to a wide variety of electronic components, enterprise computer products and embedded subsystems. Through its premier market position, Avnet brings a breadth and depth of capabilities that help its trading partners accelerate growth and realize cost efficiencies. Avnet generated more than $10 billion in revenue in fiscal 2004 (year ended July 3, 2004) through sales in 68 countries. For more information, visit www.avnet.com.

Product and service names mentioned herein are the trademarks of their respective owners.



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Contact:
Avnet Technology Solutions
Michelle Gorel, 480-794-6943 (Media)
michelle.gorel@avnet.com



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Source: Avnet Partner Solutions

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