Ideal scales SonicWall to mid-market

Signs global distribution deal with security vendor to pentrate mid-market

Distributor Ideal has signed a global distribution deal with security vendor SonicWall to help it penetrate the mid-market.

SonicWall already partners with specialist distributors including Azlan, Allasso and Tekdata, but Alex Tatham, vice-president global software distribution at Ideal, was bullish about the unique qualities SonicWall would offer.

"Although there are about 160 different security appliances available to the mid-market, I would say that SonicWall ranks in the top five along with the likes of Check Point and NetScreen," Tatham said.

"We intend to push SonicWall products into the mid-market and we hope vendors such as NetScreen will focus more on the higher end of the market, giving us a shot at their mid-market customers."

Tatham said SonicWall still had to invest more in its brand to attract more customers. "At the moment the security market focuses more on technology than brand but it is on the cusp of [a shift to] buying based on brand."

Tatham added that Ideal is very confident about the partnership and will look to leverage new security sales from its existing storage business.

Harry Gostling, country manager EMEA at SonicWall, said the partnership marked a bold move for the vendor.

"Ideal is definitely more broadline than we are used to and it is quite a brave move for us in that respect, as our other distributors are very focused on specialist markets," he said.

Gostling added that SonicWall needs to move upmarket and is planning to release a raft of new products during the year.

"Over the past couple of years we have released only tweaks for existing products, but this year we have many milestone products in the pipeline and we are keen to tune our channel," he said.

Gerard Allison, country manager UK and Eire at NetScreen, welcomed the competition.

"We regard competition as a sign that the security appliance marketplace is buoyant and is accelerating for a lot of vendors in the UK," he said.

"NetScreen continues to be successful because our security solutions meet demand from high-end customers to SMEs."