Avnet Expands Networking Portfolio with Riverbed

Avnet and Riverbed to Provide Value-Added Reseller Partners with the Training and Tools Needed to Improve Their Customers’ Network Performance and Security

TEMPE, Ariz. & SAN FRANCISCO -- Avnet Technology Solutions, a solutions distribution leader and operating group of Avnet, Inc. (NYSE: AVT), and Riverbed Technology (NASDAQ: RVBD), the IT infrastructure performance company for networks, applications and storage, today announced they have signed a distribution agreement. Avnet will distribute Riverbed’s complete line of IT infrastructure optimization appliances and tools through its value-added reseller partner community in North America.

The Riverbed® family of wide area network (WAN) optimization solutions helps businesses address a multitude of complex IT issues by increasing application performance, enabling consolidation, and providing enterprise-wide network and application visibility. These appliances and tools will enable Avnet’s partners to address their customers’ business challenges related to wide-area distributed computing. Partners can also leverage Avnet’s recently announced NetworkPath™ practice to develop the market specialization and skills needed to incorporate Riverbed’s products into their network-focused solutions.

“Networking is at the heart of any company’s IT infrastructure, and solutions that improve network performance have a positive impact on employee productivity,” said Gavin Miller, vice president and general manager of Technology Infrastructure Solutions for Avnet Technology Solutions, Americas. “The addition of Riverbed to Avnet’s networking portfolio provides our partners with a critical set of appliances and tools to directly address their customers’ pain points, especially related to wide-area networks. Through our SolutionsPath™ practices, Avnet helps our partners develop the knowledge and skills needed to incorporate these products into comprehensive networking solutions that address business challenges.”

“Avnet’s solution-based distribution model provides Riverbed with a significant opportunity to help customers of all sizes improve business performance,” said Dave Peranich, senior vice president of worldwide sales, Riverbed Technology. “We selected Avnet to be one of our North American distribution channels because of their proven expertise in providing partners with the critical market knowledge and sales skills to help customers understand how business challenges can be solved through market-leading technologies, such as those from Riverbed.”

In particular, Avnet’s recently launched NetworkPath™ enables Avnet partners to quickly gain and expand on their industry-specific expertise through a variety of tools and resources. These include:

* NetworkPath University -- a comprehensive training curriculum to accelerate sales growth,
* NetworkPath Assessment Services -- in-depth analyses of end-users’ network environments that assist partners in designing solutions to meet their customers’ business challenges, and
* SolutionsPath™ Playbooks -- online sales toolkits.


NetworkPath also can be used in conjunction with other Avnet technology and vertical market practices to further hone partners’ skills and expand their expertise.

Additional information on Avnet’s complementary solutions-focused practices, including GovPath™, HealthPath™, SecurePath™, StoragePath™ and VirtualPath™, can be found at http://www.ats.avnet.com/solutions/.

Follow Avnet Technology Solutions, North America on Twitter: http://twitter.com/AvnetAdvantage

About Riverbed
Riverbed Technology is the IT infrastructure performance company. The Riverbed family of wide area network (WAN) optimization solutions liberates businesses from common IT constraints by increasing application performance, enabling consolidation, and providing enterprise-wide network and application visibility - all while eliminating the need to increase bandwidth, storage or servers. Thousands of companies with distributed operations use Riverbed to make their IT infrastructure faster, less expensive and more responsive. Additional information about Riverbed (NASDAQ: RVBD) is available at www.riverbed.com.

Riverbed Technology, Riverbed, Steelhead, RiOS, Interceptor, Think Fast, the Riverbed logo, Mazu, Profiler and Cascade are trademarks or registered trademarks of Riverbed Technology, Inc. All other trademarks used or mentioned herein belong to their respective owners.

About Avnet Technology Solutions
As a global solutions distributor, Avnet Technology Solutions collaborates with its customers and suppliers to create and deliver effective solutions that address the business challenges of their end-user customers locally and around the world. For fiscal year 2009, the group served customers in more than 30 countries and generated US $7.04 billion in annual revenue. Avnet Technology Solutions (www.ats.avnet.com) is an operating group of Avnet, Inc.

About Avnet
Avnet, Inc. (NYSE:AVT), a Fortune 500 company, is one of the largest distributors of electronic components, computer products and embedded technology in the world. Avnet accelerates its partners’ success by connecting the world’s leading technology suppliers with a broad base of more than 100,000 customers and providing cost-effective, value-added services and solutions. For the fiscal year ended June 27, 2009, Avnet generated revenue of $16.23 billion. For more information, visit www.avnet.com.