WAN acceleration hardware vendor, Riverbed, is calling for channel partners to assist with its push into the Australian market.

The US-based hardware company, which opened a local office last month, produces compression technology for wide area networks (WANs). Its flagship appliance, Steelhead, is designed to remove latency and eliminate the transfer of identical data across a network at a binary level.

Newly installed regional director for ANZ, Steve Dixon, said it planned to adopt a completely indirect sales model. It was already in discussion with several integrators and value-added resellers (VARs) across the country, including Dimension Data.

To date, the vendor has sold its products through professional services integrator, Lateral Minds, and Perth-based infrastructure management specialist, ZettaServe.

To avoid potential channel conflict, Riverbed aimed to appoint a small number of resellers to cover various states and territories with two or three national VARs, Dixon said.

Resellers would be expected to have a couple of certified engineers, as well as take on demonstration units, he said. Dixon was also keen to hear from those with specialist market expertise such as providing managed services or storage.

The Riverbed appliances would suit organisations catering to medium corporate and enterprise customers, Dixon said. He cited Peribit Networks and Expand Networks as competing products.

"Our target market is everyone with a WAN that has issues with its performance and needs a strategy to get around it," he said. Typical users included printing companies, major banks, retail organisations and government departments.

Dixon said the local branch would bring an established US dealer program to Australian resellers. Features included a partner portal, with online training modules and product information. Riverbed would also provide resellers with marketing and technical support as well as lead generation.

All of those who signed up would earn a 30 per cent margin on sales of the product, as well as about 35 per cent on maintenance, Dixon said. The vendor expected to generate about $4 million in revenue in Australia during its first year of operation, he added.