Antoine Le Tard, general manager, RSA Australia and New Zealand
Encryption and network security company, RSA, is likely to turn its gaze to Australia’s small to medium-sized business (SMB) sector, in addition to its existing focus on the enterprise end of the market as its parent company, EMC, joins forces with Dell.
RSA has been a subsidiary of EMC since its acquisition by the storage giant in 2006. Now, with the $US67 billion Dell-EMC merger completed, RSA is planning to make use of Dell’s existing footprint in Australia and abroad to connect with parts of the market that had previously been largely out of its reach.
“What the merger means is that we have a much broader reach globally,” Antoine Le Tard, general manager, RSA Australia and New Zealand, told ARN. “Locally, we have a different level of scale now, as part of the Dell family. We will be able to focus on new sectors that we haven’t traditionally focused on.
“Dell is strong in the small to medium [SMB] market, whereas EMC has traditionally been strong in the larger enterprise end of the market,” he said. “As we understand more about how the Dell-EMC-RSA integration will happen, it’s likely that the SMB market will present new opportunities to us.”
Although Le Tard concedes that Dell’s existing security solutions business does have some overlap with RSA’s solutions portfolio, he believes that, far from leading to internal competition, both solutions suites are largely complementary.
“We do know that Dell favours the cross-promotion of products,” Le Tard said.
RSA’s local operation is set to expand its ranks, with the company investing in its go-to-market strategy in Australia and further afield. However, Le Tard doesn’t rule out the potential for some rationalisation further down the track, as Dell Technologies integrates its various operations.
“We’ve got a really strong leadership team, and we’re expanding our team locally. While there are opportunities for efficiency gains, in my experience, rationalisation often occurs across the back-end of a business. Efficiencies can come through the consolidation of systems, as well as other things.”
Le Tard suggests that, overall, the local channel and RSA partner community can expect “business as usual” in the way the company delivers its solutions in Australia.
“I don’t see any changes in our partner and distribution strategy. We have a well-established relationship with Dicker Data, and we remain committed to delivering in the same way.”
Le Tard’s reassurance to the channel that it can expect an unchanged continuation of RSA’s solutions and services delivery echoes comments made by the company’s president, Amit Yoran.
“I am happy to tell you that RSA’s mission remains unchanged,” Yoran told channel partners in a statement following the conclusion of the Dell-EMC merger. “And our commitment and passion to help our customers transform their security programs remain unchanged.
“RSA will continue to focus on delivering solutions that help enable our customers worldwide to create business-driven security strategies that connect business context with threat activities to more quickly and efficiently defend against cyber risk.
“There will be no changes to our product strategies, sales models, customer support interactions, processes, or resources that we are not driving,” he said.
