Ambitious anti-virus vendor Trend Micro is looking to double its UK and Ireland channel footprint in 2007, bringing the total to 2,000 partners.
The vendor has launched version 3.5 of its ‘Worry Free Security’ platform, which it has claimed is a security suite for SME to manage and maintain their security strategy.
Tony Larks, UK channel manager at Trend Micro, told CRN the product has particular appeal to what the vendor terms ‘proximity’ resellers.
“Proximity resellers are those that have total knowledge of a particular geographical area,” Larks said. “They can be any size from a one-man band upwards. It is this section of our channel that we are looking to grow.”
Larks said the vendor had grown its business over 80 per cent in the past six months and was looking to repeat that growth in 2007. However, he added that the increase in proximity resellers would not impact Trend Micro’s existing partners.
“We are confident that expanding proximity resellers will not hurt our current base,” he said. “We believe we can incorporate them into our channel structure. It is about getting the maximum customer coverage and driving revenue through the channel.”
However, Chris Durnan, chief executive of VAR Peapod, said: “I’m bemused by this move and wonder how this is going to impact Trend’s existing resellers in the SME market.
“To me this seems like an endorsement of the fact that anti-virus technology and all its add-ons have become a commodity and Trend seems to want to grab as big a share of the market as possible.”
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