Press Releases

2007

FORCE10 NETWORKS NAMES JAMES WATTS AS VICE PRESIDENT OF WORLDWIDE CHANNELS AND ALLIANCES TO BUILD OUT PARTNERFORCE PROGRAM

SAN JOSE, Calif., October 23, 2007 – Force10 Networks®, the pioneer in building and securing reliable networks, today announced that it has named James Watts as vice president of worldwide channels and alliances.  With more than 23 years of sales, marketing and strategic channel and alliance experience, Mr. Watts will develop and manage PartnerForce, Force10’s worldwide channel and alliance program.

“Jim has extensive experience in channel sales management and business development with a proven track record of success in high-growth technology firms that will be critical to leading Force10's channel program and maintaining a strong focus on partner profitability,” said James Hanley, senior vice president of worldwide sales for Force10 Networks.  “The dynamic channel and strategic alliances that Jim will develop will allow the company to expand its distribution opportunities to reach new markets.”

PartnerForce is Force10’s flexible channel program that helps partners deliver integrated best-in-breed solutions that meet customer requirements for reliable, high performance networks.  Through PartnerForce, Force10 helps its channel partners reduce cost of services, mitigate client risk and increase service levels by providing the advanced tools and technologies that are critical to the sales process.  With selling and marketing resources as well as advanced technical support, PartnerForce enables partners to compete and win in fast growing markets where disruptive technology delivers business value. 

Prior to joining Force10, Mr. Watts was vice president of sales and worldwide channel development at CP Secure, where he drove field channel market analysis and implemented field marketing operations.  At Centrix Global Technologies, he served as vice president of sales and alliance development.  Earlier, Mr. Watts served as vice president of worldwide sales and business development at SecureSoft, where he developed a VAR channel that generated 60 percent of the company’s revenue in two years.  Mr. Watts holds an A.S.E.E. from St. Petersburg Technical Institute and a B.A in business management and human resource administration from St. Leo University.  He will be reporting to James Hanley, Force10’s vice president of worldwide sales.  

“Force10 is committed to delivering the technology that helps customers transform their networks into strategic assets, and an innovative channel program can help extend that value to new markets,” said Mr. Watts.  “I look forward to developing PartnerForce and the strong channel relationships necessary to bring the value of Force10’s product portfolio to new organizations that require a reliable network to support their business objectives.” 

Emerging applications and increasing network traffic are fueling the need for consistent performance characteristics across the network.  In response to these changing customer requirements, Force10 recently expanded its Reliable Networking product portfolio to include the C300 resilient switch.  The Force10 C300 brings the reliability, network control and scalability that are typically found in large, high performance data centers to midsize data centers and the enterprise LAN.

For additional information on PartnerForce, please visit www.force10networks.com/partners.

About Force10 Networks
Force10 Networks is the global technology leader that data center, service provider and enterprise customers rely on when the network is their business. The company’s high performance solutions are designed to deliver new economics by virtualizing and automating Ethernet networks.  Force10’s high density and resilient Ethernet switching and routing products increase network availability, agility and efficiency while reducing power and cooling costs.  Force10 provides 24x7 service and support capabilities to its global customer base in more than 60 countries worldwide.  For more information on Force10 Networks, please visit www.force10networks.com.

Contact:
Kevin Kimball
Force10 Networks Inc.
+1 408 571-3544
kkimball@force10networks.com

Force10 Networks, Force10, E-Series, Traverse, and TraverseEdge are registered trademarks and ExaScale, S-Series, TeraScale, and FTOS are trademarks of Force10 Networks, Inc.  All other company names are trademarks of their respective holders.