Judd launches security VAD
Start-up vendors have nowhere to turn, claims ex-Fortinet boss as he launches new venture
Former Fortinet UK sales director Paul Judd has launched a security VAD designed to fill the void left by the sale of several boutique distributors - including VADition - to larger rivals.
Judd's new outfit, Heatherside, aims to act as a market maker for start-up security and networking vendors struggling to find a focused enough outlet in the UK channel.
Anti-malware startup LastLine is the first vendor on board, but the VAD - which aims to turn over £4-5m by the end of 2013 - is also close to signing up allies in the endpoint management software and fast router space.
Judd (pictured) argued there is plenty of space for a security-focused VAD to thrive.
"There are a number of good, independent VADs that have been swallowed up by bigger organisations in the last couple of years, leaving a void in the market," he told ChannelWeb.
"If you look at VADition, that's what start-up vendors want - a smaller, focused distributor that understands which partners can add value to which technologies. But it was subsumed into Exclusive Networks and its model has changed."
Judd said he was in dialogue with a number of industry executives who, after leaving larger vendors to join startups, were struggling to gain mindshare among the established distributors.
This includes former Fortinet EMEA boss Luca Simonelli, who is now vice president of worldwide sales at LastLine, an anti-malware start-up that competes with FireEye, Palo Alto and Fortinet.
Heatherside is currently carrying out three proof-of-concepts for LastLine, which was founded last year by the three academics behind the development of the Anubis and Wepawet cloud-based malware analysis tools.
Judd claimed LastLine's offering typically comes out at a third or a half of the total cost of FireEye over three years, due to its cloud-based model.
"FireEye and Palo Alto analyse malware in a virtual sandbox environment. LastLine run an emulator, which gives you far more granular information about what the malware does," he added.
Judd said he is in the process of stepping down from his role at Lato Networks, the security VAR he joined last year after leaving Fortinet.
"I will still own a share [in Lato], but I'd emphasise that Heatherside is a completely separate entity," he said, adding that his experience at Lato and VAR Netwise Systems stands him in good stead for his new venture.
"I know what manufacturers want as I have been in start-up mode and know what resellers want as I've also been that guy. So I'm in excellent shape to deliver what a startup needs," he said.
Jonathan Lassman, managing director of security VAR NTS, said: "If you are going to tell me something I haven't heard before, I'm going to want to listen.
"[VADition's] Neil Ledger and Ian Morris have done it several times, and now that VADition has been acquired, it may go more mainstream, so there will always be a place for someone bringing new technology to market."
Ian Kilpatrick, chairman of security VAD Wick Hill (pictured), agreed that there is always plenty of room for new security VADs, likening the UK market to a "warzone" for ambitious security start-ups from the US, Asia-Pac and continental Europe.
"There are lot of up-and-coming vendors who don't have the profile to fit into the large distributors," he said.
"The benefit of security is there are always new challenges and there are way more vendors chasing distributors than the distributors are able to take up - we get approached by two vendors a day. It's not a question of finding vendors, but finding ones that will be successful and who have the tenacity to be winners."
LastLine's Simonelli said: "There is certainly room for a highly focused security partner in the UK. For LastLine, Heatherside represents a great opportunity to work with a VAD that truly understands network security and that has the resources to bring new best-of-breed technology to the enterprise market effectively."