Credit: Dreamstime
Australia-headquartered cloud security vendor FirstWave has appointed Shelt Global as its first reseller to cover the Middle East and Africa (MEA) regions.
Shelt is a cyber security managed services provider who offers online and cloud-based security services to global clients through a cyber security-as-a-service model.
Publicly-listed FirstWave has begun proof of value trials with what it claims to be one of Africa's major data centre and cloud company.
The Australian vendor expects to see revenues from this partnership in the next quarter.
“We welcome Shelt as our first MEA (Middle East Africa) reseller," FirstWave CEO David Kirton said. "Shelt is a highly respected provider of cyber-security solutions to service providers and enterprises across the Middle East and Africa.
"This partnership now opens the key Middle East and African cyber-security market worth US$2 billion to our cloud-security products hosted on AWS and adds another region to bolster our ‘expand’ strategy internationally. Additionally, we welcome the first customer POV under this agreement."
Shelt has been in the market for 10 years and currently operates in more than 20 countries across Europe, Africa and the Middle East.
To support its reseller, FirstWave has a sales and support team based in the region.
"We are very excited with our new partnership with FirstWave," Shelt CEO Youssef Abillama said. Cyber security is a US$3.5 billion issue for enterprises in Africa where 96% of cyber-security incidents go unreported or unsolved.
He also said that FirstWave's technology has been well received by its customers and telecommunication partners.
In Australia, FirstWave recently appointed managed services provider CustomTec as a channel partner. CustomTec migrated five customers with over 500 seats onto FirstWave's FirstCloud email solution in November 2018. FirstWave is also present in Asia through service provider Mindflow.
The vendor closed the 2018 financial year with revenue of $7.8 million, a 21 per cent growth compared to the previous year.
However, the net loss after tax was $8.7 million a 72 per cent drop compared to the previous year, which was attributed to "the impact of de-recognition of deferred tax assets following a review of recoverability of these assets".
