Vendor Fortinet claims Bell can help it break into new markets after appointing the broadliner as its third UK distributor.

Although Bell is more broadline than Fortinet’s existing allies, VCW and VADition, the giant will devote three of its 14 security heads to the partnership.

Fortinet grew UK sales by 72 per cent last year and Paul Judd, UK and Ireland director at Fortinet, felt its business was mature enough to bring on a mass-market player.

“We have hit an upturn in growth over the past 12 to 15 months and seen really strong uptake in our technology,” he said. “The volumes justified having a third distributor.

“Bell tends to operate in a different set of partners, it sells £10m of security products and £100m of server and storage products.”

Bell will have access to Fortinet’s full portfolio, but Judd said its FortiScan and FortiDB products would create strong upsell opportunities for Bell’s install base of VARs.