Arc trio reunite at Alpha Generation Distribution

Chris Walsh, Stuart Reay and Mark Weatherill claim they have learned from past experience as they join forces at new VAD

The former management of Arc Technology are continuing to reassemble at recently formed VAD Alpha Generation Distribution, with Chris Walsh the latest to come on board.

Walsh has taken a stake in Alpha Gen alongside fellow Arc alumni Mark Weatherill and Stuart Reay, the latter of whom founded the security distributor last summer.

The trio were among four staff who performed an MBO of Arc in 2007 before selling the SafeBoot distributor to Exclusive Networks in 2009 (the fourth being Robin Draper - who remains at Exclusive Networks).

Talking to CRN, Walsh claimed the reunited team has the chance to do something similar to Arc "only better", claiming they have learned from their previous experiences in distribution.

Alpha Gen currently works with four vendors - Secunia, AlienVault, Galaxkey and Network Instruments - but the distributor is being selective about who it takes on.

"At Arc we maybe made some mistakes around product selection," said Walsh, who joins Reay and Weatherill on Alpha Gen's board of directors.

"One vendor became a massive drain on our resources and maybe as a result we didn't do as good a job on the other products. At Alpha, we only want a handful of products but we want to do the job properly on every one."

Alpha Gen's goal is to ultimately work with about 10 vendors whose products resellers can sell as suites, Walsh said, with managed services being a key focus.

"We are trying to get our vendors to complement each other. Solution selling doesn't really happen any more in distribution, so we're trying to bring that back," he said.

"If you look at Secunia and AlienVault they have a strong MSSP play and for our next partner of choice we'll have that in mind."

Walsh, who left Fortinet last month, said he'd been contacted by 20 resellers in the two days since his appointment was revealed.

"We always did the right thing ethically at Arc, which is why I think the response has been so good."