Allied Telesis beefs up Malaysian investment, seeks higher Asean profile

• Increased investment in region over last 12 months, to tune of US$10 million
• Launches new 'SDN-like' network solution aimed at smaller enterprises

GLOBAL provider of secure Internet Protocol (IP)/ Ethernet switching solutions Allied Telesis said it has expanded its Kuala Lumpur office, and announced new product offerings for the market.

Jaukb Duch, Asia Pacific regional director for Allied Telesis, said the company has experienced sustained growth across the Asia Pacific region and countries like Malaysia, Thailand and Australia have been identified for further growth due to the strength of their industry.

“The investment Allied Telesis is making in Malaysia and our new office is a result of fivefold growth for the organisation in Malaysia over the last five years,” he added.

According to Duch, the company has invested US$10 million in the region over the last 12 months and is looking at double-digit growth in these countries.

The new office in Malaysia will feature dedicated areas for product and technology showcases and will enable the company to expand its client and training services to be delivered to its customers and system integration partners.

Paul Choy, country sales manager for Allied Telesis Malaysia Sdn Bhd, said that the company’s customer base in the country cuts across many industries, the key ones being large enterprises, manufacturers as well as organisations in the education and government sectors.

The company also provides network connectivity for many CCTV projects and building management solutions.

“We are happy that Malaysia continues to be a market where we experience rapid business growth,” he added.

The company’s current portfolio of clients includes Mydin, Sapura Kencana Petroleum and the Mewah Group, with other prominent customers in the region including SM Super Malls, Bangkok Municipal Association (BMA), Toyo Tyres and McDonalds.

Boosting regional visibility

Allied Telesis has had a presence in Malaysia since 1995, but only this year formalised its footprint with the incorporation of a new legal entity and increased investment into its operations here.

When asked about the company’s relatively unknown status in the region, Duch admitted that in the past it was more focused on selling its solutions directly to different markets, and its core mission was as a technology company first and foremost.

“We keep a very low profile because we’re a technology-driven company, not a marketing company. However, we’re shifting some of our attention this year on raising both our profile and awareness, in line with our plans to expand our footprint here in the region,” he added.

Duch pointed to the recent appointment of Scott Penno to the role of regional marketing manager for the Asia Pacific region, a newly minted position within the company.

Penno is tasked with leading the company’s regional marketing strategy, and to raise the brand’s visibility in the region, already earmarked as a potential growth engine for the company.

Changing computing landscape

Allied Telesis also launched its Allied Management Framework (AMF), a component of its Virtual Core Fabric (VCF) suite of products, which is intended to help enterprises reduce operational and networking costs by 60%.

AMF is a new technology that is touted as a key component of its Software Defined Networking (SDN) strategy. It is targeted at smaller enterprises and companies hesitant at making the full commitment to an SDN infrastructure, given its relative infancy.

“One of the key challenges we see is the lack of technical expertise in the area of networking. Previously, product support was key, but as more systems migrate to IP, support has evolved to system and solution integration instead," said Penno.

"Customers face the challenge of hiring or retaining technical staff. Hence, we developed our platforms to make it easier for our customers to manage their networks,” he claimed.

According to the company, SDN is a concept that is generating a lot of interest right now and is the focus of attention for many technologists and executives from mid-size enterprises to large data centres. It is especially suited to large service providers, Internet hosting providers and Internet services companies.

SDN is intended to assist those deploying and managing networks to overcome a number of key challenges that have arisen due to the size, performance and flexibility requirements of today’s networks.

While SDN as a technology will meet these requirements, the cost and complexity of deployment of new hardware and software to deliver SDN may push this innovative technology beyond the reach of all but the largest of enterprise and data centre customers.

“Unlike [typical SDN solutions], which require a software-based controller external to the network itself, Allied Telesis has embedded the controller functionality within the network, simplifying the delivery of this new technology. This enables the benefits of SDN to be delivered without the cost, complexity and overhead that SDN brings,” Penno said.

In many cases, the cost of managing a network is a multiple of the capital cost of the hardware. For this reason, many organisations are now focussing on technologies like SDN and AMF as a means of reducing operational costs associated with managing their networks. 

An early adopter of this technology, Penno claimed, can expect to reduce the ongoing cost of managing their network by 60%, which should be compelling for any customer.

“As one component of Allied Telesis’s Virtual Core Fabric or VCF, AMF is significant in that it delivers SDN-like technology to the mid-enterprise market where SDN is likely to be inaccessible,” he claimed.

AMF is a suite of management tools that automate many everyday network administration tasks. It boasts features like centralised management; auto-backup, auto-upgrade, auto-provisioning and auto-recovery, and enables plug-and-play networking and zero-touch management.

It is available on the following Allied Telesis series switches: AT-x210, AT-x510, AT-x610, AT-SBx908 and AT-SBx8112. It will be generally available worldwide on Aug 1.

Upcoming products under the VCF umbrella include a content management solution that will offer enterprises increased traffic visibility surrounding the dynamic data networks commonly associated with SDN solution deployments.

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