Westcon keen to sign extra security vendors
Distributor continues its security shift with new relationships
Distributor Westcon Group is seeking new vendor relationships as it continues to propel its business model towards security.
Since merging with sister company Comstor (CRN, 20 February), and signing networking giant Cisco (CRN, 27 February), the distributor has also appointed Scott Duncan from rival equIP (CRN, 6 March) to head up what Westcon has called “a security competence business unit”.
Barry Shakespeare, executive vice-president for European operations, told CRN: “We are confident that we can get all of the right relationships we want, and build a solid UK base.”
Shakespeare added that Westcon is assessing vendors based on end-user demand and behaviour, as the distributor continues to evolve.
“We are keen to fulfil the next element of our value proposition. If you look at our targets it reads convergence, security and mobility, and we are moving down the list. We are putting a lot of energy into the security play at the moment,” Shakespeare said.
Bernie Dodwell, European security manager at Westcon, said since the Comstor merger, Westcon has consolidated its security vendors from Comstor, and Westcon and is now looking to plug gaps.
“We have identified areas such as email content management and web-management, and we have some target vendors we would like to bring on board,” Dodwell said.
Frank Coggrave, regional director at security vendor Websense, said: “There is a lot of good margin to be made in security. I can understand Westcon’s intentions, but you need to have the right business model in place.”
Coggrave added that email content management is a huge area of growth that has a number of established players involved in it, such as Websense, IronPort, Black Spider, Postini and Clearswift.