After the shake-up that saw CHA dumped in favour of LAN Systems recently, software vendor Citrix Systems has announced Sydney-based Alstom Information Technology will be added as a new Australian distributor.
Alstom is to distribute the full range of Citrix products, in particular Citrix's MetaFrame for Solaris.
The move has been announced as part of Citrix's long-term goal of penetrating the Unix marketplace in Australia.
Michael McGrath, marketing director for Citrix Systems Asia Pacific, singled out Alstom's "expertise in providing Sun Microsystems products to the Australian marketplace" and "overall experience in the IT industry" as key factors in the vendor's decision to appoint Alstom IT as a new distributor.
McGrath said Alstom IT was able to provide support for its MetaFrame for Unix products into key vertical markets, such as finance, telecommunications and the Government arena, which he described as "traditionally a stronghold for the Unix platform".
Citrix had decided to add another distributor to its line-up because "of the value Alstom [IT] can provide us," McGrath said. "The model is always under review and we're always keeping an eye on making sure we have the right partners on board."
He said Alstom IT was "a large, successful distributor which has earned a very good reputation in the Australian marketplace" and would be part of Citrix Systems' ongoing strategy to target the enterprise.
Chris Hale, general manager of Alstom IT, reported that the company approached Citrix in mid February after the launch of Solaris.
"We are thrilled about being appointed national distributor for Citrix, especially as the demand for application server software continues to grow in both the Windows NT and UNIX marketplaces," Hale commented.
Hale said he expected the relationship with Citrix to be one of "give and take", and hoped to further develop the marketplace through value-adding to Citrix products.
Alstom IT joins Citrix's other three distributors - LAN Systems, Express Data and MUA.