Gemalto goes exclusive with Exclusive for GDPR push

Encryption vendor to part ways with Arrow ECS and Wick Hill as it eyes up encryption opportunities associated with upcoming changes to European data protection rules

Security vendor Gemalto will be distributed solely by Exclusive Networks in the UK and the Nordics from 1 January after dropping two other distributors.

Gemalto had previously worked with Exclusive alongside Arrow ECS and Wick Hill in the regions, but Gemalto channel sales director Phil Holmes told CRN the vendor made the decision to award sole rights to Exclusive following a six-month process, as it looks to capitalise on opportunities created by the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).

"It's a process that we undertook six months ago - an RFP [request for proposal] process for our incumbent distributors with a view that we would award sole distribution across both regions," he said.

"We had three distributors; the two that are falling away are Arrow ECS and Wick Hill who have done a fantastic job for us, but we felt that what we require of our channel is much more focused.

"We felt that concentrating on Exclusive Networks as a single distributor would allow us to accelerate and ready our channel for what is going to be one of our biggest opportunities in recent years, certainly in terms of our encryption portfolio, which lends itself to GDPR incredibly well.

GDPR, which comes into force in May 2018, requires organisations to encrypt all personal data on their systems or face fines of up to €10m, or two per cent of their annual turnover, if they fail to comply. Fines can increase to €20m or four per cent of annual turnover for the most serious data protection breaches.

In response, Arrow ECS told CRN in a statement: "Given we believe it's important that agreements are solely between the company and our vendors/suppliers/customers, we don't speculate on or speak to those agreements outside those relationships."

Ian Kilpatrick, chairman at Wick Hill, said: "Given our European expansion our [Wick Hill's and Gemalto's] strategies have diverged."

Graham Jones, UK country manager at Exclusive (pictured), explained that the distributor will look to put Gemalto at the heart of the GDPR version of its Cyber Attack Remediation Mitigation (CARM) framework.

CARM is a programme in which Exclusive puts vendors' stacks together to make them easier for resellers to sell.

"We always try to get sole distribution where we can because we like to a see a return on our investment and a true partnership with the vendor," he said. "Where we're sole it means we can invest, happily, more resources in technical and marketing, knowing that everything we do comes back to us.

"We take it very seriously when we do this; over 60 per cent of our portfolio next year will be based on sole relations and it's just far more of a partnership when you're like that.

"We can plug the gaps and it allows Gemalto to sit down with us and say ‘we'll focus here if you focus here', so you get a much cleaner business plan when you're sole."