Ed Fox, vice president of network services for MetTel, a New York-based communications solution provider and AT&T Platinum Elite partner, on AT&T's acquisition of Brocade Communications' Vyatta Software Platform. Channel partners of Brocade and AT&T said Vyatta's technology would enable AT&T to focus more heavily on white-box networking and allow the carrier to purchase more selectively from traditional network solutions from the likes of Cisco and Juniper Networks.

"This is groundbreaking. It's a monumental shift in the whole supply chain."