BlueCat Networks has talked up the growth prospects of the IP address management (IPAM) sector after appointing Cohort Technology as its second UK distributor.

The vendor, which claims to be enjoying 35 per cent annual growth, inked an agreement with Avnet last January, but said Cohort would help it reach its goal of recruiting 10 to 15 VARs by mid-2010.

Louisa Maskell, who recent-ly joined BlueCat as UK channel manager, said: “There has been an explosion in rollouts of voice over IP, iPhones and PDAs and they all need to have IP addresses. They have traditionally been managed by spreadsheets, but that is becoming unmanageable.”

Maskell stressed that BlueCat’s technology is fairly complex and that Cohort’s professional services team could help VARs with implementation and support.

Grahame Smee, managing director of Cohort, said: "We believe that the market for the Bluecat product is set to grow rapidly and also that the reseller community for this type of product needs a strong range of supporting services from its distributor. We will also be launching some lead generation and associated marketing support programmes for our partners."

Bruce Hockin, head of business strategy at Avnet Technology Solutions, said: “This is a positive thing. IPAM is a strong emerging market and BlueCat needs someone to penetrate the SME area."