Bell rings out for Equiinet

Security vendor appoints third UK distributor

SME appliance vendor Equiinet has signed Bell Microproducts as its third UK distributor with a view to expanding the deal across Europe.

Equiinet is the latest addition to a stable of vendors in the recently created Bell Microproducts Security Division, formed following Bell’s acquisition of OpenPSL last year.

Under the terms of the deal, Bell will distribute Equiinet’s NetPilot Smart Unified Threat Management appliances to resellers and system integrators across the UK and Europe.

Bob Jones, managing director of Equiinet, said: “Up until a few months ago we were encountering a lot of resistance against integrated devices, but more firms are seeing the light and Bell acknowledges that. The fact that Bell has a European presence is perfect for our future expansion plans.”

Equiinet, which revealed its intention to sign a third distributor last month, already works with Sphinx and Mindshare in the UK, but Jones said there will be little overlap.

“All three distributors tend to have a different focus so we are confident there will be minimal overlap,” he said.

Duncan Hume, divisional manager for the Security Division at Bell said Equiinet is a good fit for Bell’s strategy. “The Security Division is still in its infancy, but we thought it logical to combine OpenPSL and Bell Microproduct’s divisions, and also have the separate licensing offering from Ideal,” he said.

“Equiinet’s products offer good margin to the channel and they don’t duplicate anything we carry in other parts of the business,” Hume added.