The Australian unified threat management (UTM) market was in the spotlight last week, following Fortinet’s decision to part company with Lan 1 and the emergence of a new regional distribution player.
Fortinet country manager, Charles Cote, said the company conducted a strategic review of its distribution network and opted to retain its other two distributors, Firewall Systems and WhiteGold Solutions. Over the past few months, the vendor outlined its intentions to review its distribution network, which required distributors to meet certain certifi cation and capability criteria.
“We had done a thorough review of the systems in place, the business offerings. Lan 1 is a very strong organisation, but at this point in time if we clearly look at the distribution process, we followed the process and criteria and had to make a decision from there,” he said.
Lan 1 IP security business manager, Christo Simeonoff, said both organisations had agreed to go their separate ways, and cited differences in market strategy in network security.
As part of the review of its distribution network and growth in the market, Fortinet has hired Abe Khamis as senior channel manager. He will be focusing on a number of Fortinet gold partners including Dimension Data, Integ, Logica, Fujitsu, Verizon and Seccom Global. Khamis previously worked for Symantec under its emerging technology group as a channel partner manager and also held roles at Business Objects and StorageTek.
In other news, regional distributor, Veritech Corporation, is looking to build a new sales channel after signing a partnership with Italian-based UTM vendor, Endian.
Veritech CEO, Livio Mazzon, said Endian previously dealt directly with resellers from its headquarters in Milan. Those resellers would now be under Veritech’s umbrella.
“They are appreciative that they now have access to local inventory, local currency purchases and local fi rst level installation and ongoing support,” he said.
Mazzon claimed the Endian product was well positioned for growth. The partnership has also been awarded funding for marketing from the NSW Department of State and Regional Development under its New Market Expansion Program.
“As Endian begins to grow globally, there is a lot more interest from larger corporates and educational institutions for this product. With this interest, we plan to gradually build the reseller channel and assist resellers in understanding product positioning and where it offers the best solution for their clients,” he said.
Veritech is also looking to build up its distribution business with more vendors and a broader sales channel.
“Ideal vendors are systems integrators or network-focused resellers. End-user market spans from small SMB to large corporate. We also plan to focus on education and government,” Mazzon said. Based in Griffith, NSW, Veritech is a network and computing consulting fi rm that handles IT support and system design for regional NSW.
