Palo Alto seduces Europe's largest security integrator

Next-generation firewall vendor announces global pact with NTT Com Security

In a sign of its increasing maturity, Palo Alto Networks has inked a formal pact with one of - if not the - region's largest specialist security integrators.

NTT Com Security, formerly Integralis, has entered into a global managed security services agreement with the next-generation firewall vendor.

The partnership will see the 740-strong behemoth provide implementation, integration and managed security services to Palo Alto's security platform.

NTT Com Security, which changed its name from Integralis last year, is regarded as Europe's largest specialist security integrator with a turnover of more than €200m (£165m).

The duo previously had a reseller relationship in certain countries but Karl Driesen, Palo Alto's vice president of EMEA, said its success in deepening the relationship speaks to his firm's desire to crack both the enterprise space and the channel that serves it.

"The two big priorities for us are making progress among major accounts and systems integrators," he told CRN.

"The two things go hand in hand: I heard an independent figure that a quarter of the network security space [for major accounts] is in the hands of those SIs. So if we really want to continue to grow at the pace we've been growing, we have to create successful partnerships with those types of partners."

Palo Alto may have been one of the big success stories of recent years but, as a relative newcomer, it initially struggled to make headway among some of the larger security VARs and integrators that have invested heavily with traditional firewall incumbents.

"We developed a strong partnership with Integralis pretty quickly but with some of the other SIs there has been radio silence," Driesen (pictured) said.

"But we are proactively going after them and have created a specific business development department to do that."

In its most recent financial report, NTT Com Security announced that global sales rose by eight per cent to €162.2m in the nine months to September 2013 in a period during which it opened four new companies in Asia. UK revenue, however, slipped 12 per cent to €59.2m on the back of weaker product sales.

Simon Church, chief executive of NTT Com Security, said in a statement: "NTT Com Security's information security and risk management solutions, proven security expertise and global presence are testament to our clear understanding of customers' security needs. We are pleased to develop our worldwide capabilities on Palo Alto Networks' security platform to help meet our customers' critical security needs."