More resellers offering security as market democratises

45 per cent of the 61,000 resellers tracked by research house CompuBase now offer IT security

The proportion of resellers offering IT security has risen dramatically over recent years, according to research house CompuBase, with 45 per cent of those on its pan-EMEA database now active in the market.

Of the 61,179 IT and telecoms resellers in CompuBase's EMEA database, some 27,351 - or 45 per cent - now sell IT security.

The volume of resellers the market watcher tracks who are active in the market has grown by 20 per cent between 2010 and 2016.

For the UK specifically, of the 7,399 IT and telecoms resellers CompuBase has sight of, 2,389 - or 32 per cent - claim to offer IT security, a 41 per cent rise.

In France, 5,771 out of 11,454 (50 per cent) on CompuBase's systems offer IT security, while in Germany the figures stand at 6,606 out of 13,170 (50 per cent).

The highest proportion is to be found in Poland, where 1,095 of the 1,882 resellers tracked (58 per cent) claimed to be active in IT security (click to enlarge table).

Despite this, very few resellers are earning big bucks from the category, CompuBase found; a fact it said was not surprising since security products have become "so widely democratised".

Of the 20,000 resellers it looked at on this score, some 59 per cent are making estimated annual revenues of under €2,000 for the IT security category, and only four per cent said they are making annual revenues of €75,000 or more.

Of those distributing security solutions in EMEA, the average annual revenue is about €38,000, CompuBase added.

Of these, 87 per cent resell anti-virus, anti-spam software and other security appliances. Some 45 per cent said they sell software firewalls and 37 per cent hardware firewalls, while 29 per cent said they offer network administration software.