Networking infrastructure provider QLogic has announced a partnership with ASI, a distributor of solution building I/O and reference architecture blueprints.

"Over the years, I have seen ASI work with vendors to build solutions and optimize the delivery of specific workload and vertical solutions," said Shaun Walsh, vice president of Corporate Marketing, QLogic. "Partnering with ASI will help us reach specialized VARs that expand our market reach and support the development of better products. One great example of that is AMAX (News - Alert), which builds solutions for Hadoop and Spark clusters."

Hadoop is a system for distributed storage and processing system for large clusters of servers. Apache Spark builds on Hadoop by offering fast Big Data processing, letting users do complex tasks like machine learning in real time.

While the financial terms of the deal haven’t been disclosed, QLogic appears to want access to ASI’s large customer base, which includes over 12,000 VARs. The two companies expect the deal to provide greater profitability to their resellers as they offer advanced Ethernet infrastructure capable of handling next generation workloads.

"With QLogic's proven track record of market leadership and innovation, adding its products to our networking and storage portfolio aligned with our business strategy," said Cathy Wang, vice president of Product Management, ASI. "QLogic's solutions address the needs of large enterprises and SMBs. By providing our resellers access to these solutions, it allows them to fully support our customers' specific areas of need effectively and efficiently."

The announcement comes at a time when QLogic is facing lowering profits as more companies opt for cloud solutions. This dependence on cloud computing is eating into the traditional enterprise server and storage market. The company has lowered its expected revenue estimate for the first quarter from $124 million to $113 million for fiscal 2016, triggering a drop in its stock price.