NTS founders return with new security VAR

Jonathan Lassman and Phillip Dick form new security partner four years after selling NTS to Capita

The founders of Network Technology Solutions (NTS) have returned to the cybersecurity market, four years after selling the firm to outsourcing giant Capita.

Next Generation Security (NGS) launched today and is partnered with vendors including Check Point, Palo Alto Networks, Cylance and Crowdstrike.

Jonathan Lassman and Phillip Dick exited NTS in 2014, after founding the business in 2004, and went on to form storage specialist Epaton.

The duo can now return to the cybersecurity industry after the terms expired in the NTS deal that banished them from cybersecurity.

Lassman (pictured) told CRN that the security market is still very much the same as when he started out in the industry.

"We're coming back into the industry at exactly the right time," he said.

"The market seems to be in an identical place to where it was in 2004 when we started the first company. You had Vistorm and Integralis - the two big names - and today you have SecureData and SecureLink as the two big names.

"Then you had a myriad of other VARs doing between £2m and £10m and today you have exactly the same; some of them around £5m to £6m are the same as they were in 2004 doing exactly the same numbers.

"What is missing from the market is a reinvention of what we did before: someone to come into the market and talk about next-generation solutions and things that end users haven't considered yet."

NGS will be headed up by Lassman and Dick, with Dilan Hindocha joining as the third director. The VAR launched today with a headcount of 10 staff.

Alongside reselling and installations, NGS is also building out its managed services offering, with a security operations centre currently in development.

In terms of vendors, Lassman said that Check Point will be a key focus for NGS - declaring it one of the most undersold vendors in the channel - as well as Citrix, which he said has underrated security capabilities.

He explained that getting vendors on board for the new organisation was relatively easy, given their relationships in the channel from the NTS days, adding that the most difficult aspect has been the four-year exile from cybersecurity.

"It has been horrible," he said. "My words of advice to anyone who sells a business is to have something else to do before you sell it.

"It leaves a very big hole. We got out and did something else because we saw a gap in the market, but the reality is that if you sell a business you need something else to fill your time."