Identity and access management vendor A10 Networks has secured $16m extra funding to finance its growth plans, and is now looking to set up its first UK channel.

The company, which was set up by Lee Chen, the founder of Foundry Networks, wants to recruit a base of resellers in the UK to push its IDsentrie appliance, which it has claimed is the industry’s first unified identity and access management box.

Will Palmer, EMEA managing director at A10 Networks, said the market is crowded, but the firm is confident of success.

“Our niche is being able to take what a lot of software companies such as IBM, Novell and Microsoft have been doing in their software, remove the costs and complexity and load it all onto a single appliance,” he said.

“The appliance is easy for a security manager to install and they will see the benefits straight away.”

He added that A10 is seeing particular success in enterprise and public-sector markets, with the sweet spot being firms with between 1,000 and 5,000 employees.

Palmer said the vendor is not looking to recruit large numbers of resellers in the UK and it is not looking to sell through distribution.

“We want to secure a sufficient number of VARs to cover the market, but we don’t want to drive margins down,” he said. “We think we will end up with a mix of general and specialist VARs.”

He added that the vendor is looking to keep the barriers to entry as low as possible.

“As we see it, it is our responsibility to get the channel trained, so we want to make the entry barriers as low as possible in terms of financial commitment,” he said.

Palmer added that A10 hopes to have partners signed up and selling products by January 2007.

Bob Tarzey, service director at analyst Quocirca, said the appliance form-factor could be a point of interest for resellers.

“The convenience of an appliance will be attractive to many smaller businesses, although there are already several players in the identity and access management area,” he said.

“Most resellers that need to sell products in this area will already have the vendors in place, so A10 will have to demonstrate that it has something over and above the offering that existing vendors have.”

Paul Spencer, managing director of VAR Axial Networks, agreed.

“For a vendor to be successful, it needs a very strong proposition to bring to market,” he said. “It must be proven and have a clear and transparent channel strategy.

“It will also need to invest in market awareness and education.”