Data centers and virtualization are about as common a pairing these days as peanut butter and jelly, and Westcon Group is hoping its latest Avaya networking switch proves as popular as the tasty lunchtime treat.

The distributor is now offering its reseller customers the Avaya Virtual Services Platform (VSP) 9000, a high-density Ethernet switch enabling virtualization in demanding environments.

“We had been a large Nortel reseller prior to its acquisition by Avaya, and a lot of our reseller base sold what’s now called Avaya Data,” said Steve Bernard, vice president North America at Westcon Group. “With the launch of this data center product, it was important for us to participate with our partners and to continue to demonstrate our leadership position in the data center market.”

VSP is especially useful in environments where scalable, high-density throughput is essential. It is designed for next-generation data centers and large campus core applications, supporting 1GB and 10GB Ethernet connectivity as well as the emerging 40GB and 100GB Ethernet standards.

“The VSP completes Avaya’s offering very well,” Bernard said. “Avaya always had a strong Ethernet switching line – stackable, energy-efficient, etc. – but it didn’t have a core switch built for virtualization of multiple applications in the data center. Now with this launch it’s technology that’s current and fits the same portfolio characteristics that the data center portfolio has.”

For partners, the switch lends itself to well to both those existing Avaya data partners looking to upgrade or those that are just starting to virtualize and need the right data switch, he added.

Westcon Group plans to add the Avaya VSP 9000 to its recently announced LEAP (Learn, Experience, Architect and Plan) Centers of Excellence, where resellers are able to receive hands-on training and technology demonstrations and host customer briefings for next-generation data center solutions.

“We started LEAP with other vendors and it demonstrates our expertise in the data center area. Avaya was extremely interested in that concept and we will be installing the VSP 9000 in our LEAP centers,” Bernard said. “We have already built use-cases and training, and tied financial modeling around it to help resellers sell to their C-level customers.”

The Avaya VSP 9000 is currently available through Westcon Group to Avaya-certified resellers.

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