Load balancing and database clustering vendor ClusterScale aims to become a thorn in F5 and Cisco’s side, by taking market share with the help of new UK partners.

Despite only launching in January this year, the UK-based firm has announced it wants to increase its current partner base of five to at least 30.

Stephen Wilde, sales and marketing director at ClusterScale, said the vendor wants to become a pain to its competitors.

“The load balancing market is very small at the moment, so the only way is up. ClusterScale is also looking for a UK distributor partner and is currently in talks with two,” said Wilde.

“We are in the right time zone and have refreshing margins to offer resellers, compared to our competition. ClusterScale also has the advantage of being small, so it can get things done quicker.”

Wilde said the vendor’s products would complement a reseller selling Sage or Pegasus as value and consultancy can be rapped around them.

“The ClusterMirror mirrors the customer’s database, which the reseller can then add value and consultancy to,” he added.

In addition to the ClusterMirror the vendor also recently unveiled its virtual appliance, ClusterLoad ESX VA, which manages application traffic, inspecting, transforming and routing requests as it load balances them across the application infrastructure. The product has also passed VMware's VA Certification program.