It’s only the first day at ADTRAN’s Connect 2010 press and analyst event, but talk about ADTRAN’s plan in the channel and its overall play in the industry floats around fast. Read on for some key trends that The VAR Guy happened to come across: here’s a hint — ADTRAN no longer is positioning itself to play second fiddle to Cisco …

None other than Ted Cole, channel chief for ADTRAN sat and spoke with The VAR Guy candidly about ADTRAN’s strategy, along with David Schenkel, senior tech analyst for ADTRAN’s enterprise networks division. The buzz? “Blend and extend.” And while it sounds the tagline for a blender infomercial, it’s actually doing ADTRAN some good.

Cole noted that there’s now a pause before spending, due in part to the recession. It’s no longer about buying a big brand name (cough: Cisco), it’s about buying something that has value for the money spent. ADTRAN has been approached by — and partners have reached out to — companies reevaluating their needs and taking a longer look at how they spend their money and what they need their hardware investment to really do. That’s your “extend” part.

What’s more, both Cole and Schenkel said, ADTRAN’s interoperability with existing hardware is part of its appeal. Cisco and Avaya were just two of the names Cole dropped as solutions that can benefit from ADTRAN hardware. In addition, more and more partners are less concerned about the technical aspects of the hardware they sell and more concerned about selling the right hardware to make the end user happy, Cole said. That’s your “blend” part.

Lastly, partners and customers are pleased with ADTRAN’s ‘green’ in-house-built power supplies, Schenkel said, and the value of and return on that investment has become more important to them than just buying hardware to lower the perceived total cost of ownership. It’s deeper than that — it’s about investing in new hardware with greater value so companies can reposition their existing staff to get the biggest bang for their buck.

And — oh yeah — Ted Cole loves his iPad.

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