Corero swaps UK distribution horses

Vendor takes on Infinigate UK as it argues DDoS prevention market has hit an inflection point

DDoS mitigation vendor Corero has inked a UK pact with distributor Infinigate UK - formerly Vigil - and will part company with incumbent Cohort Technology following a transitional period.

The relationship is set to roll out to other territories, including Germany and Scandinavia where Corero lacks an established channel.

Paul Lawrence, Corero's vice president of international operations, admitted that, until six months ago, his firm's solutions were often seen as competitive to traditional IPS and firewall devices that contain a degree of anti-DDoS capabilities.

But end users are now waking up to the fact that this is not the right approach, he claimed.

This means that DDoS should now be considered as more of a complementary than competitive solution to firewalls and Lawrence said Corero will spray incentives at resellers that punt its box alongside leading outfits such as Palo Alto Networks.

"There are acknowledged problems with firewalls and next-generation firewalls that do not adequately address the problems of DDoS," he said. "We will provide incentives to ensure resellers have a rationale to take out [a best-of-breed DDoS and firewall solution] to their customer base."

According to research commissioned by competitor Radware, which quizzed US IT bosses, DDoS attacks are costing firms an average of $3.5m (£2.3m) a year. The market for snuffing out these attacks is set to grow to $420m by 2016, according to Infonetics figures cited by Corero.

Infinigate UK co-managing director Murray Pearce (pictured) said DDoS attacks are "quickly becoming a weapon of choice" for cybercriminals, adding that the distributor plans to roughly double Corero's UK partner base from 15 to 25-30.

He claimed that Corero was able to offer more granularity than other anti-DDoS offerings that are geared more towards the ISP and service provider market, such as Arbor (which entered the channel last year).

Lawrence agreed: "Arbor is well recognised for having a service provider solution," he said. "That is not a market we play in. For on-premise solutions, Corero has a product that offers significantly more granularity which provides more control of the network."

This is the second UK distribution rejig Corero has made inside 13 months after Cohort was taken on in favour of Exclusive Networks last February. Lawrence said that Infinigate will act as sole distributor for now "but as the market expands there is potential for multiple routes".