Duncan Hume, the man who helped Bell Micro establish its security division in the UK and US, has left to work for distributed denial of service (DDoS) vendor RioRey.

Taking up the position of EMEA director, Hume is tasked with setting up a channel in the region. CRN understands that two other former Bell directors have also moved to RioRey following job cuts at the global distributor.

“RioRey has yet to touch the market in the US and Europe, but it is very strong in Asia,” said Hume. “We are looking for two routes to market ­ the traditional two-tier channel and web hosting firms.

“No other products address this market specifically. We are confident that we can offer partners a margin-rich opportunity by appealing to firms with a mission-critical web site.”

However, Dave Ellis, e-security director at Computerlinks, said the vendor is entering a tough market.

“There is a demand for DDoS protection, but most intrusion-prevention tools already include that functionality,” he said.

“Security resellers have moved to consolidate different functions on one platform, so unless RioRey has some good niche offerings that stand out, it will struggle to compete with established brands.”