Security vendor SonicWALL has appointed Cohort Technology as a fifth UK distributor to help promote its non-firewall technologies.

SonicWALL already works with value-add distributors Tekdata and Sphinx and broadliners Azlan and Bell Micro.

Andy Zollo, sales director for Northern Europe at SonicWALL, said the appointment reflects its recent move into non-firewall technologies such as remote access, email security and backup.

“We have expanded into enterprise and now have four distinct product sets. Cohort has lots of skillsets in areas outside of firewall and doesn’t just see us as a firewall vendor,” he explained.

Zollo revealed that three quarters of SonicWALL’s UK revenue is still generated from firewalls. “I can see a huge opportunity to expand our new products into the reseller base,” he said.

SonicWALL’s existing value-add distributors, Tekdata and Sphinx, would not view Cohort as a threat, Zollo added.

“Cohort works with a lot of convergence resellers; it has a very distinct reseller base,” he explained.

Cohort managing director Grahame Smee said the distributor would support the partnership by offering a range of marketing programmes to partners.