Avnet will be the value-added distributor for Virtual Iron, meeting the growing demand for server virtualization solutions in the Australian market

Sydney, Australia, March 14, 2008 -- Avnet Technology Solutions and Virtual Iron Software Inc. (www.virtualiron.com), a provider of software solutions for server virtualisation, have today signed an agreement for the Australian channel. The new agreement offers Avnet’s business partners a powerful and cost-effective alternative to existing server virtualisation solutions.

The virtualisation market is booming* in Australia, but until now there were only proprietary and high-priced solutions for server virtualization. By leveraging open source, industry standards and the latest processor technologies from Intel and AMD in its products, Virtual Iron offers a comparable alternative to existing, proprietary solutions that is much easier to use and more cost-effective.

With the new alliance, Avnet Technology Solutions opens up the huge market potential for affordable server virtualisation for its resellers.  With premium features supported by industry leaders such as Intel, AMD, IBM and HP, Avnet is thus continuing its rigorous development of solution selling and is offering its business partners a complete portfolio in the virtualisation environment – from the client area with virtual desktops up to data centers with high-availability server virtualization solutions on X86 machines. Virtual Iron also provides a convenient management console at no extra charge that enables complete management of the virtual infrastructure, including live transparent workload migration capabilities, high availability and DR solutions.
 
”We are very excited about the prospect of working with Virtual Iron to enable the Australian channel to greatly expand their market opportunity in the server virtualisation market,”  said Gavin Lawless, general manager, Avnet Technology Solutions Australia. “Working with Virtual Iron gives us a foundation vendor for our server virtualisation and storage practice.  While we have just signed with Virtual Iron for virtualization, we have also announced a new relationship with Data Domain for storage. In essence, we are building a solution practice that will enable business partners to leverage the rapid growth in these markets.”

“The server virtualisation market is an exciting opportunity. Organizations are rapidly adopting the technology as they strive to consolidate their physical server footprint, maximize resource utilisation and deploy high availability and disaster recovery solutions,” said Craig Stockdale, managing director for Virtual Iron in Australia. “There is tremendous demand worldwide for an alternative to VMware, and our combination of comprehensive capabilities, ease of use and affordability is meeting a real need.  Avnet will be instrumental in establishing our presence here, and we look forward to working with them to build out our channel network to further capitalize on this huge opportunity in the Australian market.”

* IDC Australia report titled Consolidation, Virtualisation, and Storage Strategies in Australia Small and Medium-Sized Business: The Quiet Revolution notes that “"Cost considerations continue to be the strongest driver to the adoption of consolidation and virtualisation in Australian SMBs. This is due to operation costs decreasing as the ratio of personnel to number of servers/amount of storage increases,"… Although 60% of SMBs could accommodate more servers and storage in their server room, they are not inclined to do so because of the challenges implied. As a result, around half of SMBs are investing in consolidation, virtualisation and better management tools to deal with the situation.

About Virtual Iron Software Inc.
Virtual Iron provides server virtualization software that enables companies of all sizes to reduce the cost and complexity of operating and managing their IT infrastructure. Leveraging industry standards, open source, and built-in hardware-assisted acceleration, Virtual Iron provides a complete and cost-effective solution that supports a broad range of data center initiatives including server consolidation, development and test optimisation, high availability and disaster recovery, capacity management and virtual desktop infrastructure. The software is available exclusively through Virtual Iron’s Channel One partner network. Trial versions of the software are available for free download at www.virtualiron.com/free. For more information, visit www.virtualiron.com or e-mail info@virtualiron.com.

About Avnet Technology Solutions
Avnet Technology Solutions is an operating group of Avnet, Inc. (NYSE:AVT) representing US$6 billion in annual revenue for fiscal year 2007, with locations in more than 30 countries. As a global technology sales and marketing organization, Avnet Technology Solutions has sales divisions focused on specific customer segments and a select line card strategy enabling an exceptional level of attention to the needs of its customers and suppliers. Visit www.ats.avnet.com.

About Avnet
With more than 300 locations serving customers in 70-plus countries worldwide, Avnet markets, distributes and adds value to the products of the world's leading electronic component suppliers, enterprise computer manufacturers and embedded subsystem providers. Additionally, Avnet brings a breadth and depth of service capabilities, such as supply-chain optimization, logistics solutions, product assembly, device programming, computer system integration and engineering design assistance. For the fiscal year ended June 30, 2007, Avnet generated revenue of $15.68 billion. Visit www.avnet.com/.

Media Contact:
Michael Costigan
Marketing Director
Michale.costigan@avnet.com
0408651467
02 8877 0751
www.ats.avnet.com.au