Dominic O’Hanlon - CEO, rhipe
rhipe has inked a new partnership agreement with Symantec to distribute the cyber security software vendor’s Endpoint Protection Cloud offering to partners in Australia, New Zealand and Asia.
“Symantec is the global leader in security technology innovation, and is a leader in endpoint security,” rhipe CEO, Dominic O’Hanlon, said. “We are pleased to bring Symantec into our vendor portfolio.
“This solution offers comprehensive capabilities in a streamlined security-as-a-service offering that is ideal for our channel partners across APAC."
It is understood that the new distribution arrangement will see a firm focus on the small and medium-sized business (SMB) market in the local region.
“rhipe is one of the prominent cloud channel companies in Asia Pacific and Symantec’s Integrated Cyber Defense Platform focuses on empowering the businesses to securely embrace the cloud,” Symantec’s Asia Pacific channels and alliances vice president, Edwin Yeo, said.
“With this partnership, Symantec will expand its outreach significantly and provide a cloud-based solution with all the features necessary to keep our SMB customers’ information secure.
"Furthermore, the solution's seamless and easy management will be a welcome relief for overstretched IT department."
According to rhipe’s chief strategy officer, Chris Sharp, Symantec’s Endpoint Protection Cloud offering is particularly relevant for channel partners that want to build their own clouds, largely because it adds an additional layer of granular protection.
Therefore, this lets partners build more secure solutions for their end customers, Sharp suggested.
“We’re also pleased to offer Symantec’s security-as-a-service hosted solution in all 18 markets across Asia Pacific, although our initial focus markets are the mature markets in ANZ and South-East Asia,” he said.
The deal comes roughly five months after rhipe revealed it had taken its partnership with Microsoft to the next level, with the vendor appointing the Aussie cloud software distributor as a globally managed licensing partner.
In April 2015, Microsoft named Ingram Micro and rhipe as the first Australian distributors to roll out the second phase of its CSP program.
