NetIQ to go channel-only following Novell acquisition

Security vendor hunts for partners to punt Sentinel 7, which combines its own SIEM capabilities with those of Novell

Security and systems management vendor NetIQ is moving to a channel-only model in the UK following parent Attachmate's acquisition of Novell.

Attachmate split Novell into three business units after completing its acquisition of the software vendor in April: Novell, SUSE and NetIQ – which inherited all Novell's identity and access management and datacentre products.

David Janson, UK and Ireland director at NetIQ, argued the reorganisation would finally enable his firm to compete on an equal footing with systems management juggernauts BMC, IBM, CA and HP.

"If I had had a notepad and had written down what I thought was missing from the NetIQ portfolio to launch it properly as a credible alternative to the Big Four, I would have got 90 per cent of my wish list," he said.

NetIQ draws only half of its $350m (£220m) annual revenue from the channel and Janson said partner recruitment is a priority.

"NetIQ is not very well associated with being channel-friendly but now we have the breadth of portfolio to compete, we want to be a lot more aggressive in the channel. Going forward, we want to put everything through the channel, apart from in a handful of cases where we have master licensing agreements with very large customers," he added.

NetIQ currently has 30 to 40 active UK resellers, clustered mainly around Novell's identity management and PlateSpin technologies.

Janson said channel recruitment efforts will centre around the launch of Sentinel 7, a product that combines Novell's security information and event management (SIEM) capabilities with NetIQ's change-guarding technology.

"We believe this is the biggest release in the SIEM space for some time and it coincides with the shake-up we have seen in the market, with Q1 Labs and Nitro Security being acquired by IBM and McAfee," said Janson.

"We will go to partners of those two vendors and talk to them about the merits of Sentinel 7 and working with a smaller and more agile company than the parents of those two technologies."