Westcon Group, Cisco Announce Distribution Agreement in Brazil

SAO PAOLO, Brazil, April 2, 2008 -- Westcon Group, Inc., the leading specialty distributor in networking, convergence, security and mobility, announced that it is extending its distribution agreement with Cisco® into the Brazilian market. Westcon Brazil will offer channel partners a full line of Cisco enterprise and SMB solutions effective immediately.

This announcement extends the existing distribution agreement between Westcon Group and Cisco, which serves channel partners in 86 countries around the globe. Westcon Group will take advantage of its award-winning global solutions program infrastructure to offer OneVoice and OneDefense followed by other programs later this year. Additionally Westcon, which has been operating in Brazil since 1998, is now expanding its infrastructure to include additional sales, product management, finance and operational capabilities.

Article continues below...

"Our customers in Brazil-and around the world-are highly focused on the technologies that make businesses more productive," said Otavio Barbosa, general manager of Westcon Brazil. "By introducing Cisco to our established reseller base in Brazil, we are able to offer a host of innovative solutions in unified communications, convergence and other relevant technologies, while providing the advanced support our customers have come to expect in other regions of the world."

The Cisco agreement follows Westcon Group's recent acquisition of Cernet, which expanded the distributor's reach in the CALA and South American region.

Juan Pablo Estevez, Latin America channels director for Cisco, added "We are truly excited to now have Westcon Group as a distributor to help us expand our presence in the Brazilian market. Westcon is completely familiar with our full range of products and services and has the proven capability to attract, train and enable a dynamic channel partner ecosystem."

Westcon Group, founded in 1985, now has operations on every continent. Westcon Group has distributed Cisco's products since 2000 in North America, South America, Europe, Asia-Pacific and Africa, in countries such as United States, France, England, Germany, Spain, Turkey, Australia and Indonesia, among others.

José Paula de Castilho, business director of FTD Comunicação de Dados, added: "To remain competitive and stay two steps ahead of the market, we need a combination of best-of-breed products as well as a best-of-breed specialty distributor. The collaboration between Cisco and Westcon provides real value add to our customers, since we will not only have access to Cisco's world class SMB and enterprise solutions, but also Westcon's innovative programs such as OneVoice and OneDefense."

About Westcon Group

Westcon Group, Inc. is the leading specialty distributor in networking, security, mobility and convergence for leading technology vendors. Through its Westcon, Comstor and Voda One business practices, Westcon Group sells products and services to resellers, systems integrators and service providers. Westcon Group has particular expertise in the convergence of voice, data and video applications and technologies, including voice-over Internet protocol, or VoIP, security for networking and communications systems, remote access, Internet and e-business, virtual private networks, videoconferencing and wireless connectivity. For more information, visit .westcongroup.com.

Source: Cisco Systems, Inc.