Exclusive Networks and Sophos have parted ways in Australia, ending a local distribution agreement that lasted over a year.
After striking a partnership in February 2016, both businesses will now head in different directions following a mutual decision to terminate the deal.
“We decided to amicably part ways as our business objectives, on both sides (ours and those of Sophos), were being met by other parties,” Exclusive Networks managing director Dominic Whitehand told ARN.
“In the interests of continued growth, execution and relevance for both of our businesses, we mutually agreed that it would be best to go our separate ways.”
The termination, which is already effective in the local market, means Exclusive Networks will no longer distribute the vendor’s cyber security, networking and infrastructure solutions.
Specifically, this included cloud, unified threat management and end user security solutions.
“Both businesses decided that we weren’t going in the right direction,” Sophos channel director for Australia and New Zealand Jon Fox told ARN. “They had other vendors that they wanted to focus on and we felt that the other two distributors that we’ve got in Australia can service the market that we need.”
As a result, Sophos will continue to be distributed through Arrow and Bluechip Infotech across Australia.
“We’ve got two great distributors on board but that’s not taking anything away from Exclusive Networks because they are a great distributor also,” Fox added. “The alignment in terms of the two businesses just wasn’t there so we decided to mutually call it a day and we’ll double down on Arrow and Bluechip Infotech.”
The move comes over a year after Sophos reshuffled its distribution pack locally, following the termination of Hills and Connector Systems in the Australian market.
Looking ahead, growth is on Sophos' roadmap, with the company highlighting in March plans to expand its reach across the channel on both sides of the Tasman, through a cloud-centric approach spanning the entire security spectrum.
Backed by new local and regional channel chiefs, the security vendor announced plans to double down on endpoint and network plays, for reseller value in selling across the portfolio.
Meanwhile, Exclusive Networks has beefed up its data centre portfolio under the banner of BigTec, recruiting vendors such as Silver Peak, Juniper Networks, Nutanix and Rubrik and has experienced 11 per cent year-on-year growth in 2016 for the A/NZ region.
