Kaspersky gives Enta run of small business market

Entatech joins Wick Hill, Exclusive Networks and Ingram Micro in anti-virus vendor's VAD line-up

Anti-virus vendor Kaspersky has added Entatech as a fourth UK VAD but has capped the size of firm it can target at 100 users.

Entatech already had UK rights to sell Kaspersky's boxed retail offering but was yesterday granted access to the vendor's licences, joining incumbents Exclusive Networks, Wick Hill and Ingram Micro.

The partnership will officially kick off within the next few weeks, indicated Jon Atherton (pictured), vice president of Entatech.

"Some of the other distributors have contracts to sell to above 100 users. We are looking to focus on our key strength of sub-100, which is why Kaspersky has taken us on," he said.

"Due to the good work we have done in retail, it is a natural progression for us to work with Kaspersky on other products."

Andrew Lintell, director of UK corporate sales at Kaspersky, said the timing was right to introduce more of a volume-value split to its distribution strategy.

"We have focused a lot of attention on bringing out more midmarket and enterprise-focused tools but SMB still represents a massive growth opportunity for us," he said.

Chris Walsh, sales director at Exclusive Networks, said he saw the deal as positive.

"As Exclusive has grown over the past few years, our focus on Kaspersky has moved towards SME and the sub-100-user business is not necessarily where our partners' strength lies," he said.

"Kaspersky continues to be a partner of significant growth."