IBM signs up OEM deals with major vendors

IBM has secured a series of networking technology agreements with competing vendors Brocade, Cisco and Juniper. The broad reseller and OEM agreements cover switches and routers that manage data across networks.

IBM claims that demand caused by mobile web and connected sensor technology will lead to 16-fold growth in each individual's "information footprint" by 2020.

Under the agreements IBM will also provide services through its global technology services unit to integrate and support the networking products, and will offers IBM Systems Director and Tivoli network management software to manage the flow of data and transactions.

“This OEM agreement represents a continued deepening of our relationship with IBM, and a significant new route to market for Juniper,” said Juniper EVP and GM Ethernet platforms business Hitesh Sheth.

The alignment with IBM represents an extensive of preexisting relationships with all three vendors across a variety of data center-oriented services and products.

The Juniper arrangement appears to be the most advanced as it allows Juniper's Stratus Project to collaborate with IBM's 10 global  Cloud Labs. Under the deal IBM will also  rebrand and sell selected Juniper EX and MX switches and routers.

“This new OEM agreement with Juniper will help support  IBM’s data center networking initiatives through unparalleled network scalability, carrier-class reliability and operational simplicity, accelerating the deployment of our customers’ virtualized applications and services, and extending the value of their networks,” said IBM VP of Enterprise Initiatives Jim Comfort.