Orca Security has signed a distribution deal with QBS Software as the cloud security specialist looks to expand its partner ecosystem across Europe, the Middle East, and Africa (EMEA).

Under the agreement, QBS will distribute Orca’s cloud-native application protection platform (CNAPP) to enterprise and upper mid-market customers through its network of VARs, MSPs, MSSPs, and cloud-focused partners.

The first phase of the partnership will cover the UK and Ireland, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, France, as well as the UAE and Saudi Arabia – with further expansion planned for the Nordics, Benelux, and Central and Eastern Europe.

In an announcement, Shannon McWilliams, Orca Security’s head of global distribution and programs, described the agreement as “critical” to the company’s regional growth strategy.

“QBS brings exactly what we need, a partner-first mindset, deep regional relationships, and the marketplace infrastructure to meet customers where they’re already buying,” he said.

“This agreement is a significant step in making Orca the default choice for cloud-first organisations across EMEA.”

Headquartered in Portland, Oregon, Orca Security provides an agentless cloud and AI security platform designed to give organizations visibility across cloud, AI, and application environments.

The offering helps security teams identify, prioritize, and remediate risks without deploying agents across cloud environments.

Orca company said its new distribution deal with QBS forms part of its partner-first go-to-market strategy, with the partnership expected to strengthen partner enablement as well as simplify access to its platform.

The announcement also marks the latest expansion for QBS Software in EMEA, which has continued to broaden its vendor portfolio through a series of strategic distribution agreements.

Earlier this month, the firm partnered with Dropzone AI to distribute its AI-powered security operations platform across the region.

Commenting on its latest collaboration, Tom Corrigan, chief revenue officer at QBS Technology Group, said Orca’s platform is well suited to the distributor’s enterprise-focused partner base.

“Orca Security represents exactly the kind of best-in-class cloud and AI security vendor we want to champion across our EMEA network,” he explained. “Their agentless approach and comprehensive CNAPP platform resonate strongly with the enterprise and upper mid-market buyers our partners serve every day.

“We’re committed to giving this partnership the executive focus and regional execution it deserves, and we look forward to building a high-performing ecosystem together.”

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Dropzone AI has announced an exclusive EMEA distribution partnership with QBS Software, in a move the company said will expand the availability of its AI-powered security operations platform to MSSPs and VARs across the region.

The agreement will see QBS distribute Dropzone AI’s Agentic SOC platform, which uses a team of AI agents to automate security alert investigations across existing security environments.

According to the vendor, the partnership aims to help channel partners address the growing demand for security operations capabilities as organizations contend with rising alert volumes, increasingly sophisticated cyber attacks, as well as an ongoing shortage of skilled SOC analysts.

For MSSPs, Dropzone said the platform can help scale managed SOC services without requiring a proportional increase in analyst headcount, while VARs will be able to offer the technology to customers operating in-house security operations centers.

"Security teams are under immense pressure to scale operations, meet increasingly stringent SLAs, and ensure regulatory compliance while maintaining resilience against rising alert volumes,” said Brett Candon, Dropzone AI’s vice president of international, in an announcement.

“Through this partnership with QBS, Dropzone AI will extend its reach to both MSSPs and VARs across EMEA. MSSP partners can scale service delivery and improve profitability, while VAR partners can help customers with in-house SOCs move from alert chaos to incident focus."

Dropzone’s Agentic SOC solution is built around its AI SOC Analyst, which investigates security alerts from across an organization’s existing security stack before escalating confirmed threats to human analysts for response.

The technology integrates with existing SIEM, SOAR, EDR, and case management platforms, allowing organizations to augment existing security operations without replacing current infrastructure.

Benefits for MSSPs and VARs

Dropzone said its platform will help MSSPs improve SLA performance, onboard customers faster, increase SOC capacity, and free up analysts to focus on high-value tasks while building higher-margin managed security services.

Meanwhile, VARs will be able to support customers operating their own SOCs by leveraging the offering to accelerate investigations, reduce false positives, ease alert fatigue, and address temporary cyber security skills shortages.

The companies said the agreement expands the channel opportunity across EMEA by enabling partners to support customers with managed, co-managed, and in-house security operations models while helping address the ongoing shortage of skilled SOC analysts.

"Our partnership with Dropzone AI strengthens QBS' security portfolio with advanced autonomous AI SOC capabilities that addresses a real challenge across the channel,” commented Tom Corrigan, chief revenue officer at QBS Software.

“By bringing category-defining AI SOC capabilities to our partner ecosystem, we're supporting growth, improving service delivery, and helping partners deliver stronger customer outcomes.”

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Value-added distributors (VADs) serve as a vital bridge between technology vendors and the extensive network of resellers who bring solutions to end customers. The global IT distribution market reached an estimated $463 billion in 2024, with the top 15 distributors alone generating nearly $287 billion in revenue, highlighting the enormous scale of an industry where VADs are essential players

Unlike traditional distributors whose primary focus is logistics and product fulfillment, value-added distributors enhance the channel by delivering specialized services that elevate product offerings, empower partners, and accelerate market growth.

VADs are companies that provide support and expertise beyond simply moving products from point A to point B. Their services can include pre-sales technical support, product configuration, marketing assistance, and comprehensive training for channel partners. By adding this value, VADs simplify complex technology solutions, making them more accessible and effective for businesses of all sizes.

The core functions of a VAD

The “value” is delivered through a broad range of specialized services that go well beyond traditional distribution. These functions are what truly distinguish VADs from conventional distributors.

Key services offered by VADs include:

• Technical support and training: VADs offer comprehensive technical assistance both before and after the sale. This includes designing complex solutions, troubleshooting implementation challenges, and providing certification programs to ensure partners are fully proficient in the technologies they offer.
• Marketing and sales enablement: Many VADs function as an extension of the vendor’s marketing team. They deliver co-marketing initiatives, lead generation programs, and sales training to help partners build demand and close deals more effectively.
• Product bundling and customization: VADs frequently combine hardware, software, and services from multiple vendors to create integrated, tailored solutions for specific customer needs. This not only saves resellers time and effort but also delivers a more seamless experience to end customers.
• Financial services: VADs often provide flexible financing and credit options to partners, supporting improved cash flow management and enabling the pursuit of larger opportunities.
• Logistics and inventory management: While logistics remain a foundational service, VADs elevate this function with advanced warehousing, efficient order fulfilment, and supply chain management to ensure timely and reliable delivery.

By delivering these value-added services, VADs empower their partners and vendors, streamline the path to market, and help customers achieve better outcomes with technology solutions.

VAD vs. VAR: Understanding the difference

The terms VAD and value-added reseller (VAR) are often used in the IT channel, and while they share the goal of adding value, their roles are distinct. A VAD operates at the distribution level, serving a network of resellers. A VAR, on the other hand, sells directly to the end customer, adding its layer of value through services like consulting, implementation, and ongoing support.

Essentially, a VAD empowers the VAR. The VAD provides the VAR with the products, training, and support necessary to serve their end customers effectively. A VAR will often source products from a VAD to create a turnkey solution for their client.

The evolution of value-added distribution

The role of the VAD has undergone a significant transformation, driven by major shifts in the technology landscape. The rise of cloud computing and as-a-service (XaaS) models has been a primary catalyst for this evolution.

Before the cloud era, the VAD's value was heavily tied to the physical distribution of hardware and software. However, with the move to subscription-based services and digital delivery, the emphasis has shifted. Modern VADs have become "cloud aggregators," offering platforms and marketplaces where partners can procure, manage, and bill for a wide range of cloud services.

This evolution has also seen VADs deepen their expertise in high-growth areas like cybersecurity, data analytics, and artificial intelligence (AI). They are no longer just intermediaries but have become strategic partners that help organizations navigate digital transformation. This shift includes a greater focus on developing digital commerce capabilities to cater to the needs of modern business buyers.

Market impact and future trends

The value-added distribution market is a significant and growing part of the IT ecosystem. The global IT services market is expected to grow from $3.7 trillion in 2025 to over $5.2 trillion by 2029. The software distribution market alone is projected to grow at a CAGR of 13.8% between 2025 and 2035. This growth reflects the increasing reliance on the channel to bring complex technology solutions to market.

Looking ahead, several trends are shaping the future of value-added distribution:

• Platform-based business models: The move towards digital marketplaces and platforms for procuring and managing technology will continue to accelerate. VADs must invest in robust, user-friendly platforms to remain competitive.
• Data-driven insights: VADs will increasingly leverage data analytics to provide their partners with valuable market intelligence, identify new opportunities, and optimize their services.
• Focus on ecosystems: The future of the IT channel lies in collaborative ecosystems. VADs are uniquely positioned to orchestrate these ecosystems, bringing together a diverse range of partners to deliver complex, multi-vendor solutions.
• Emerging technologies: VADs will continue to play a crucial role in bringing emerging technologies like AI, the Internet of Things (IoT), and blockchain to market by providing the necessary expertise and support to their channel partners.

The VAD is a dynamic and essential component of the IT channel. As technology continues to evolve, so too will the role of the VAD, cementing its position as a strategic enabler of innovation and growth for vendors and resellers alike.

Northamber has announced the acquisition of Nuvias UC’s UK hardware business for £7.1 million, as the distributor looks to strengthen its presence in the audiovisual (AV) and unified communications (UC) markets.

NUC Distribution will merge with Northamber’s own portfolio to create a unified, scalable platform that covers the full spectrum of AV, UC&C, and smart office solutions.

The agreement follows Surrey-based Northamber’s previous acquisitions of Tempura Communications back in 2024 and Epatra earlier this year.

With this latest buy, Northamber said it is deepening its capabilities across Microsoft Teams and Zoom-certified video systems, enterprise voice and telephony, specialist UC endpoints, as well as smart workspace and meeting-room solutions.

“The addition of the highly specialist team from Nuvias UC to our group significantly broadens our UC and AV capabilities,” commented Alex Phillips, chairman of Northamber.

“We are delighted to have this opportunity, which, alongside our existing domestic and international portfolio, will accelerate our growth in one of the fastest-evolving technology markets.”

Partner benefits

The acquisition adds £28.8m in hardware revenue and bolsters Northamber’s capabilities across Microsoft Teams Rooms, Zoom Rooms, and hybrid working ecosystems, while absorbing the Nuvias UC team’s broad expertise.

More than 700 UK customers will now join Northamber’s ecosystem, extending the firm’s reach into the mid-market and enterprise, public sector, and service provider segments.

For UK channel partners, Northamber said the acquisition will provide ‘significant benefits’ – such as improved availability, stronger vendor alignment, expanded technical support, as well as comprehensive collaboration solutions.

The move comes as vendors increasingly favor specialist partners that can offer a combination of scale, reliability, and technical depth – while customers prefer suppliers that can provide complete solutions, according to Phillips.

“Having two highly complementary businesses in the Northamber Group means partners have a single, specialist route for end-to-end collaboration technology,” he explained.

“It is part of our long-term strategy to deepen our AV capabilities, strengthen UC and collaboration, add specialist services, and scale through strategic, targeted acquisitions.”

A natural fit

Having sold its hardware arm, Nuvias UC’s remaining software and services division will now operate under the Konekt brand as the company centers its focus on cloud communications and services.

Commenting on the future of the hardware business, Konekt CEO Joel Chimoindes said Northamber offers the scale and technical capabilities to support customers through the next phase of market growth.

“Their focus on AV and UC makes this a natural fit, and we are confident our teams and partners will benefit from the combined strength of the portfolio and expertise,” he added.

“As this part of the business transitions to Northamber, we are looking forward to our continued growth as we focus on supporting partners through our cloud communications platforms and services.”

Technology distribution giant Westcon-Comstor has expanded its security portfolio through a new partnership with multi-cloud security vendor, Fortanix.

The agreement aims to help channel partners across the EMEA drive AI expertise and security capabilities.

Under the scheme, Westcon-Comstor said partners will be able to build data security offerings that focus on cryptography, regulatory compliance, and post-quantum readiness to unlock new revenue streams in high-growth areas.

In an announcement, Daniel Hurel, SVP of Westcon EMEA Go-To-Market, said the Fortanix partnership will “empower partners to lead in securing multi-cloud and AI environments.”

“By delivering a unified platform with the crypto-agility required for post-quantum readiness, we’re helping partners build scalable data security practices that meet critical customer needs – from regulatory compliance to secure AI innovation – unlocking significant services and solutions opportunities,” he explained.

AI expertise

Fortanix’s platform helps enterprises secure sensitive data across on-premises and multi-cloud environments. The solution applies advanced encryption, key management, and enables users to run applications and AI workloads entirely within isolated hardware enclaves.

Through the new distribution agreement, Westcon partners in EMEA will now be able to leverage Fortanix to build deep expertise in data privacy, crypto-agility, and secure AI to better address customers’ advanced data security challenges, while also meeting the growing demand for unified data security and multi-cloud control.

The deal also includes access to Fortanix’s advanced data tokenization and confidential computing capabilities to allow sensitive data to be used in analytics or AI models securely.

The distributor said it will support partners through a combination of integrated solutions, marketing resources, flexible business models, and value-added services – including data insights, enablement, and training.

Fortanix adoption

Through its network of EMEA channel partners, Westcon will take the Fortanix platform to a wider range of end-user organizations as they look to navigate AI and post-quantum challenges.

“Westcon-Comstor gives us unparalleled reach across the EMEA channel, allowing us to help more organisations secure their data as they navigate the complexities of AI and the post-quantum era,” commented Andy Buckland, Fortanix’s vice president of sales for EMEA.

“Together, we’ll provide Westcon’s partners with the tools and support they need to solve their customers’ most pressing data security challenges.”

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Ingram Micro is gradually getting back on its feet after a recent cyber attack severely disrupted systems.

In an update, the company said that it's been recovering systems and implementing new security protocols and processes in the wake of the incident.

The firm revealed it can now receive and process orders once again in most regions of the world, although in some countries there are still limitations when it comes to hardware and other technology orders.

"Ingram Micro is pleased to report that we are now operational across all countries and regions where we transact business. Our teams continue to perform at a swift pace to serve and support our customers and vendor partners," the company said in a statement.

"Our teams are now able to process and ship orders received via EDI, or electronically, as well as by phone or email across all of our business regions."

The latest regions to get back to normal are Austria, Canada, Singapore, and the Nordics, as well as the countries supported by its Miami Export business.

The company was already able to process orders for customers in Brazil, China, France, Germany, India, Italy, Portugal, Spain and the UK, albeit with limitations on hardware purchases.

As for subscription orders, the company said customers should contact Unified Support.

Since the attack, the company has been taking some systems offline and implementing other mitigation measures.

"Based on these measures and the assistance of third-party cybersecurity experts, we believe the unauthorized access to our systems in connection with the incident is contained and the affected systems remediated," it said.

"Our investigation into the scope of the incident and affected data is ongoing."

What happened with the Ingram Micro cyber attack?

Ingram Micro first revealed it had been hit by a cyber incident last week, with responsibility for the attack claimed by the SafePay ransomware group.

SafePay is believed to have breached the IT distributor via its GlobalProtect virtual private network (VPN) platform, according to reports.

The ransomware group is an up-and-coming outfit that’s been making waves in the industry for some time now. SafePay employs a ‘double extortion’ model, encrypting systems while exfiltrating sensitive data.

This technique is used largely to increase the attacker's leverage through the threat of public exposure and operational disruption.

Research from Halcyon found that SafePay has been using a modified version of LockBit's late-2022 code.

It uses a wide range of tactics, techniques, and procedures, including exploiting known vulnerabilities in widely used enterprise software to gain initial access. It then exploits legitimate remote management tools for persistence combined with credential-harvesting tools such as Mimikatz.

Halcyon’s investigation into SafePay noted that, despite its newcomer status in the ransomware scene, the group “demonstrates a surprising level of technical maturity and operational discipline”.

This, the company added, suggests it “may be run by experienced threat actors”.

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IT services specialist Crayon has announced an expansion of its partnership with Google Cloud to include mid-market distribution and a focus on AI capabilities.

The collaboration will leverage Crayon’s distribution capabilities across more market segments to help its channel network deliver the firm’s AI technologies and cloud solutions to businesses around the world.

Resellers and channel partners operating in the mid-market will gain streamlined access to Google Cloud’s portfolio alongside specialist support and engagement programs, and simplified billing and management.

The agreement will also place a strong emphasis on accelerating the adoption of Google Cloud’s AI capabilities, the firm said.

In an announcement, Crayon CEO Melissa Mulholland described the expanded partnership as a “landmark achievement” for Crayon and its partner base.

"Our strength lies in our extensive channel network, reaching hundreds of thousands of end-customers,” she said.

“As a Google Cloud Distributor, we can now equip our partners more effectively with the premier AI and cloud technologies from Google Cloud, enabling them to drive innovation and deliver exceptional value to their clients."

Headquartered in Oslo, Norway, Crayon helps more than 100,000 businesses strategically acquire and optimize software investments and embrace the latest cloud and AI technologies.

Founded in 2002, the firm now operates across 46 countries globally and employs around 4,000 professionals.

Building on its existing status as a Google Cloud distributor, Crayon will work even closer with Google Cloud to make AI tools and infrastructure more accessible to organizations of all sizes to help them drive efficiencies.

The pair said this expanded collaboration underscores their shared commitment to driving innovation via the channel and AI adoption.

“Crayon possesses a deep understanding of the channel and a vast ecosystem of partners skilled in cloud and AI solution delivery,” commented Kevin Ichhpurani, president of Google Cloud’s Global Partner Ecosystem.

“By continuing to elevate our partnership, Crayon and Google Cloud are helping companies of all types and sizes benefit from leading AI and trusted global cloud infrastructure.”

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Westcoast has announced an expansion of its portfolio that will see the IT distributor offer devices with Snapdragon X Series processors to the UK channel.

Thanks to a new partnership with Qualcomm Technologies, partners can now resell devices equipped with Snapdragon X Elite and and Snapdragon X Plus to cater to increasing market demand for faster and more energy-efficient AI PCs.

In an announcement, Westcoast said the collaboration strengthens its position in bringing powerful, AI-driven technology to partners and supporting them in taking cutting-edge, end-to-end solutions to market.

"Westcoast are extremely excited to be partnering with Snapdragon,” commented Paul Hamilton, Westcoast’s client director. “With AI computing accelerating and businesses preparing for the Windows 11 transition, this is the perfect time for our partners to explore devices with the Snapdragon X Series.”

“These PCs deliver the performance, power and security needed to drive productivity and innovation in today’s workplace, while expanding and complementing our partners’ existing device offerings."

Westcoast’s latest partnership aims to help the channel take the most advanced AI PCs on the market to customers to enable seamless and speedy Windows 11 performance.

Snapdragon’s future ready platform offers responsive performance and multi-day battery life, enabling teams to leverage the latest AI-enable apps, as well as keep pace with future advances and on-device AI.

The move also promises seamless app performance on hundreds of the most used Windows apps, most of which run natively. The small percentage that aren’t yet native are smoothly handled by Microsoft’s emulation engine.

Additionally, Westcoast said the processors facilitate premium capabilities, on-device AI, and best-in-class performance at every price point across its range of more than 50 Windows PCs from leading hardware brands.

“Only one Windows PC platform delivers performance unplugged - Snapdragon X Series,” commented Enrico Salvatori, SVP and president of Qualcomm Europe.

“By collaborating with Westcoast to integrate devices with our Snapdragon X Series processors into their portfolio, we will enable reseller partners to modernize their customers' device estates and unlock the potential of emerging AI applications for the modern workplace.”

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Westcon-Comstor has announced the launch of a new managed security operations center (SOC) solution, available via its Cisco-focused Comstor arm.

The solution is the first managed SOC offering launched by the distribution giant and the first to be powered by Cisco’s extended detection and response (XDR) capabilities.

With the Managed XDR SOC, Comstor said partners across the EMEA region will be able to tap into the fast-growing cyber security services market, which is set to be worth between $8 billion and $10 billion by 2030 in EMEA alone, according to Grand View Research.

Partners will be able to launch a SOC offering under their own brand, avoiding the need to build their own solution and taking on the associated investments, annualized costs, and operational complexities.

“Our managed SOC offering enables partners to expand their service portfolio and provide comprehensive security solutions to end-users, unlocking new growth opportunities and increasing customer retention and loyalty,” said Steven Heinsius, Comstor’s vice president of Product Management and Marketing EMEA.

Cisco XDR

Underpinning the managed SOC solution are Cisco’s XDR capabilities, which can be integrated with existing security architectures, including non-Cisco solutions.

Cisco XDR harnesses multiple security layers - including network, endpoint, server, and cloud - and tackles cyber threats using advanced analytics, AI, and machine learning.

With Comstor’s new solution, partners also have access to 24/7 support and monitoring from certified Comstor analysts and engineers, as well as access to Cisco expertise, through a single dashboard for centralized management.

Comstor said this continuous monitoring visibility across security layers will provide enhanced threat detection and faster response times, enabling partners to guide and support customers through new regulations such as the EU’s NIS2 directive and Digital Operational Resilience Act (DORA).

Revenue streams

For partners, the new offering will open up additional avenues to new recurring revenue streams through subscription-based models and ongoing service contracts, Comstor said.

Similarly, end-users will benefit from proactive protection, increased operational efficiency, as well as heightened threat resilience.

“By leveraging our solution, partners will be able to build stronger relationships with customers through addressing their security needs and ensuring continuous, agile protection,” Heinsius explained.

“At the same they can avoid the costs involved in establishing and maintaining a SOC, which can typically run to millions of dollars.

“We believe this solution represents a clear point of differentiation for partners and equips them with a competitive advantage. We couldn’t be more excited to bring it to market.”

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Across the IT channel, partners are starting to pivot from a transaction-driven sales model to one that’s built around the value they can provide across the customer lifecycle.

Today’s partners increasingly recognize the impact they can have on the buyer journey, from creating market demand for particular products, to assisting in the discovery process, and through to ongoing education and services that occur post-purchase. Moreover, they need to recognize new opportunities before their customers even ask.

These changes are occurring because the way organizations buy products and services has shifted. Their typical buying journey has become more digital, more referral-based, and less sales-focused. Crucially, partners are engaging prospects long before an organization comes into direct contact with a prospect and long after the point of sale. 

As such, technology vendors are overhauling their partner programmes to reflect this shift, with many now rewarding partners who influence customers outside the point of sale, for example.

Access to data presents the biggest challenge for partners

Against this backdrop, partners are continuing to move towards subscription and recurring revenue models. Within this model, customer success and understanding how to deliver long-term value to customers is key. 

Having the right data is critical.

Many partners have to date been operating in traditional ‘pay-per-product’ models and are now looking to transition their legacy customers to subscriptions and recurring offers. As such, they need a deep understanding of how to balance the shift and how to get the most from the new model. It requires both transactional data and data insights that help them grow their customer base and add more value over the duration of the customer lifecycle.

However, according to Westcon-Comstor’s channel research report, navigating the shift: The role of distributor marketplaces in partner success, 40% of partners said access to the right data to support the customer lifecycle was their main challenge as they shift to subscriptions and recurring revenue models.

When asked what operational requirements partners have to move to these new models, most partners say they need an understanding of how the market is changing (52%), and data on customer lifecycle and renewal dates (45%).

Distributor marketplaces deliver the right data

This is where distribution has a pivotal role to play. Most distributors are already expanding their subscription offerings and working with partners and vendors to enable the shift to subscription and services. 

As intermediaries in the supply chain, this community is in a unique position to share data and insights with partners that will help them better manage their multivendor portfolios and the complexities that come with transformation.

Ultimately, the right data insights can be key to keeping end customers happy, help with upsell and cross-sells, and reduce the risk of churn. But delivering this data in a format that’s accessible, understandable, and provides actionable insight is challenging. This is where partners are looking to distributor marketplaces to deliver the right data and enablement services to partners.

Indeed, when partners were asked how distributors could help with customer success, most (55%) said access to more customer data was most important. 39% percent also want access to market data from distribution.

Where this gets interesting for partners is understanding how their customers are getting the business benefit from their services, how they are using it, and whether they are getting the most out of it. 

Online distribution marketplaces give them the data they need to understand what they have delivered to their clients to help them identify new solutions for their customers so that both the partner and the end customer gets the most out of the services they’re offering.

Marketplaces put partners firmly in the driver’s seat by giving them a single platform to buy and manage hardware, software and services in one place, plus the ability to track customer trends and challenges that can lead to new opportunities.

Ultimately, partners need data to improve customer experience, gain insights for better decision making, build pipelines for new products and services based on customer trends, and more. 

Traditionally, distributor marketplaces have not stood up to this challenge. The future of distribution marks marketplaces as enablers of partner growth through meaningful customer and market data insights. And we’re sitting firmly on the edge of the future.

TD Synnex has announced it has been named as the exclusive distributor for Synology’s new BeeDrive backup solution in the UK.

Released back in June, BeeDrive is a compact data hub designed to back up personal files and photos from multiple devices simultaneously. 

Available in 1TB and 2TB capacities, Synology said the offering protects files at fast local transfer speeds, while also providing complete data privacy and ownership.

The BeeDrive hub is now available exclusively via TD Synnex, which will provide sales, financial, and logistics support to customers in the UK. 

Adam Lee, TD Synnex’s UK business unit manager for Global Computing Components, said the deal’s exclusivity will enable the company to provide strong support to partners in taking BeeDrive to market.

“As hybrid working becomes the norm, more people need reliable, high-performance storage solutions that are simple to use and manage,” he said. 

“The BeeDrive fits the bill exactly. It’s an ideal backup solution for mobile and home users who need to take data backup seriously and we’ll be doing everything we can to ensure our partners can maximize the excellent opportunities it brings.”

Alongside the exclusive distribution agreement, TD Synnex says its existing strength in the SMB and prosumer sector means it can place a strong focus on supporting partners in driving their sales.

“With Synology’s solid reputation and competitive end-user pricing, we expect the BeeDrive to be a popular choice for smaller businesses and home workers,” Lee added. 

Data management provider Synology specializes in solutions for data storage and backup, file collaboration, video management, and network infrastructure. 

With its new BeeDrive offering, the company says it is looking to bring its expertise in backup technologies to a larger group of users – specifically those that may not have the time or networking knowledge to host a 24/7 server for backup. 

Instead, BeeDrive offers a local, private alternative that can automatically back up file changes in real time, with better recover point objective (RPO) than scheduled backups. 

In the event of data loss, the hub can be connected to a different device to access the stored files without any time-consuming recovery process. 

By overcoming bandwidth limits imposed by internet or cloud service providers, Synology said BeeDrive can work up to 11 times faster than backing up large files to the cloud from a PC, and six times quicker than backing up from a mobile device. 

Jeremie Francois, UK channel sales manager for Synology BeeDrive, said the company’s close relationship with TD Synnex was key in selecting a distribution partner that would help drive adoption of its new solution. 

“We have a really good and well-established working relationship with TD Synnex, and that’s one reason we are working with them exclusively on BeeDrive,” he said. 

“They also have an excellent and extensive portfolio of other products and solutions that partners can offer alongside the BeeDrive in addition to flexible logistics and financial services.”

Artificial intelligence (AI) threat detection and response provider Vectra has selected the Nuvias Group as its only strategic distributor across the UK.

Vectra specialises in using AI to detect cyber crime and help organisations thwart attacks before they become full breaches. The company’s platform enables unified threat visibility for public or hybrid cloud, software as a service (SaaS), identity and corporate networks, extending to environments such as AWS, Azure AD, and Microsoft 365.

The new distribution agreement builds on Vectra’s existing partnership with Nuvias company Cloud Distribution as the firm moves to harness the role of the channel in the UK.

The collaboration will leverage Nuvias’ range of partner enablement services, which utilise the latest business intelligence tools, to address the digital transformation needs of MSSPs, GSIs, and SIs, and their customers, Vectra said.

Vectra UK&I Regional Director Garry Veale said demand for intelligent, threat-led security is “at an all-time high” as the likes of ransomware and wiper malware continue to target enterprises.

“To meet demand, we selected the Nuvias Group, because we value its proactive approach to distribution, knowledge of the market, and technology expertise,” he explained.

“The Nuvias Group’s integrated offering will give more organisations the opportunity to use Vectra as part of a holistic solution and reduce their mean time to detect attacks. This is a logical next step to expand on the great work from Cloud Distribution”

Vectra said it will leverage Nuvias’ 1600-strong UK partner network, as well as its integrated solutions and ancillary services, to help its expansion from the SMB market into medium and large enterprises.

“With its focus on innovation and significant investments into R&D, Vectra fits perfectly into the Nuvias portfolio of cyber security and intelligent networks, complementing the existing range of solutions,” said Lee Driscoll, MD of Nuvias UK&I.

“Vectra’s NDR and cross cloud capabilities give commercial partners, SIs, and MSSPs a great value proposition to bring to customers, offering them a simple way to adopt advanced security measures and complete their SOC (Security Operations Centre) visibility triad.”

Cyber security distributor Infinigate has partnered with extended detection and response (XDR) specialist Cybereason to become its sole distributor in Europe.

Deployed by major organisations and cloud providers around the world, the Cybereason Defense Platform helps businesses detect and respond to cyber attacks at speed and scale.

The platform analyses more than 23 trillion security-related events per week, which Cybereason says works out as five times the volume of any other solution in the market. Using its patented MalOp (Malicious Operations) detection engine, it reveals the full attack story across every device, user identity, application, and cloud deployment.

In an announcement, Infinigate’s Chief Business Development Officer Julien Antoine said it aims to empower organisations to make informed decisions about their cyber security strategy.

“The scourge of ransomware attacks continues, and we work closely with our customers to understand their unique challenges and, as a result, they trust us to bring them the best and most innovative solutions and services, which truly deliver business value,” he said.

“Cybereason is an ideal choice to complement our existing portfolio – and we are looking forward to significant mutual growth.”

The new partnership will leverage Infinigate’s expertise across the EMEA region and enable Cybereason to access more VARs and MSSPs through its network of trusted resellers.

Frank Koelmel, General Manager of EMEA at Cybereason, said the agreement will extend the company’s presence in Europe and beyond.

“Infinigate’s network of partners, their agility and their capacity across Europe was a key driver for Cybereason signing an exclusive distributor agreement,” he said. “This partnership enables us to jointly assist more European organisations in their relentless fight against ransomware and other debilitating targeted attacks.

“We believe this partnership will boost Cybereason’s growth in Europe and potentially in other regions in 2023.”

Infinigate Group has acquired UK cloud distributor and Microsoft Indirect Provider Vuzion in a move it says will enable the company to ensure a “more comprehensive security posture” for end customers.

The distributor becomes the company’s second acquisition on UK shores in recent months, following its takeover of Nuvias back in July.

Based in Fareham, Hampshire, Vuzion serves more than 600 resellers and one million cloud users and was the first Microsoft UK provider to cover a full spectrum of offerings across the cloud partner ecosystem.

Infinigate says the acquisition will enable it to channel Vuzion’s experience in helping both vendors and partners adapt as cybersecurity start-ups increasingly turn to a fully-subscription-based model,

“Our acquisition of Vuzion is a strategic move that we’ve taken because cybersecurity and cloud are a natural fit,” explained Klaus Schlichtherle, Infinigate CEO. “It enables us to ensure a more comprehensive security posture for the end customers, especially in the SMB space.”

The move will make Infinigate the only Value-Added Distributor that will provide resellers with the expertise to transition customers to comprehensive and secure cloud solutions, he said.

“The acquisition will accelerate digital transformation both for Infinigate and for those we serve and combined with our key recruitment and investments, it enables us to re-invent VAD for a digital world,” Schlichtherle added.

“In the coming quarter, we will be investing in the core Vuzion business in the UK and will develop a joint approach across EMEA to secure the cloud and leverage Vuzion expertise and experience,”

Emerging from Cobweb Solutions in 2016, Vuzion delivers hand-picked cloud solutions with a core focus on marketing and technical abilities. Over the last three years, the company has registered strong organic year-on-year growth of more than 30% each year and boasts a rapidly expanding customer base.

As part of its acquisition, Vuzion managing director Michael Frisby will join Infinigate as SVP of cloud services, while around 43 Vuzion staff members will also join the firm.

Commenting on the move, Frisby said the companies’ shared people-focused approach and common values will provide a strong foundation going forward.

“Joining forces allows us to provide more expertise and services, which help our mutual partners accelerate their growth and secure their customers’ journey to the cloud,” he said. “This acquisition generates new employment opportunities as we continue to grow our teams, in the UK, Ireland and in Europe.”

Channel services group Synaxon UK has announced a new partnership with specialist print products distributor UFP.

The agreement means resellers now have access to UFP’s expansive specialist print and IT portfolio through Synaxon's online procurement platform EGIS.

The addition of UFP brings the total number of distributors on the platform to 40 and broadens the range of offerings available to resellers, retailers, and office product suppliers, Synaxon said.

“UFP is a really valuable addition to EGIS. It’s a thriving and dynamic business built on delivering the best products and services and we’re delighted to have them onboard,” commented Mike Barron, managing director of Synaxon UK.

“In our view, EGIS is the best procurement platform in the UK channel and with over two million products available from 40 distributors – including all the leading names – it provides resellers, web stores and office products dealers with great choice, great service, and great value.”

Founded in Paris in 1981, UFP has built a far-reaching presence across Europe, with annual sales of over £108 million. The distributor employs 750 people, with 125 of those based at its UK headquarters in Bradford, East Yorkshire.

UFP is an authorised distributor for a host of leading vendors, including Apple, Brother, Canon, Dell, Epson, HP, IBM, Kyocera, Lenovo, Lexmark, Logitech, NETGEAR, OKI, Samsung, and Xerox.

As well as print devices, UFP also offers networking, peripherals, data storage, mobile accessories, as well as other tech products for delivery throughout the UK.

“Our partnership with Synaxon UK will help us to reach out to even more resellers and dealers and allow them to take advantage of UFP’s services,” said Adam Collier, general manager at UFP.

“Our business is built on hard work, honesty, and relationships – a partner you can rely on. We’re keen to show Synaxon UK partners how that translates into excellence in choice, value, and service for their business.”

Schneider Electric has forged partnerships with Also, Ingram Micro and Tech Data to deliver its Managed Power as a Service (MPaaS) programme across the UK, the Netherlands, Germany and Austria.

MPaaS is an edge computing programme that combines the firm’s APC Smart-UPS uninterruptible power supplies (UPS) service with its monitoring and dispatch capabilities to help partners create their own as a service offer. This is offered alongside access to the EcoStruxure IT software and flexible finance options from the participating distributors.

Describing this launch as the first of its kind in the IT sector, the company claims MPaaS opens up more revenue streams for its partners, allowing them to reduce operational costs while adding more value to the services customers receive. This platform also increases recurring revenue streams through real-time remote monitoring and management services.

Schneider Electric previously launched the programme element of its landmark Managed Power Service (MPS) scheme in April 2021, which offered partners the tools to build their own MPS practices. Since then, approximately 140 partners have joined the scheme, vice president for IT channels in Europe, David Terry, told Channel Pro with these partners primed to take advantage of the distribution element the firm’s just announced.

“Managed power is probably a new term, and the ‘as a service’ tag is fairly new,” he said. “The market is huge, and growing, and depending in which geography you’re sitting you could be at a different maturity level,” Terry said.

“The global market is around about $160 billion for as a service, and when we look at managed power we have around about 27% of people offering managed power, so there’s a huge opportunity. What we’re looking to do, particularly in Europe, is get more people on board and more people offering this service as a whole.”

The three partner firms – Also, Ingram Micro and Tech Data – are among the company’s three largest IT distribution partners, and will grant Schneider Electric inroads into the four territories in which it’s launching MPaaS. The firm, however, is actively exploring partnering with further distributors to eventually launch the programme across the whole of Europe.

Launched in April, an MPS is a managed service that’s based on various aspects of managing IT infrastructure for edge computing, such as UPS. Dubbed the ‘Edge Software & Digital Services Programme’, its launch allowed IT companies to establish recurring revenues by offering remote monitoring and management of physical infrastructure across customer networks.

The programme comprises four elements including lifecycle rebates to offset initial setup costs, a step-by-step operational guide, certification paths, and access to Schneider Electric’s EcoStruxure scheme. This includes 24/7 remote monitoring and on-site support.

This type of service is already available in the US, Terry said, with European entities yet to explore MPaaS in a meaningful way. COVID-19, he added, has accelerated digital investment, meaning he feels it’s the right time to launch such an offering across Europe.

Last October, the firm announced a raft of improvements to its EcoStruxure IT Expert platform to improve the remote management and monitoring of data centres and edge deployments. This included adding AI-supported UPS battery health assessment.

Last year was an extremely challenging time for the channel community. At the beginning of the pandemic, distributors, resellers and MSPs were confronted with how best to deliver products and services to their customers in unusual and demanding circumstances.

Those who responded proactively and swiftly to the challenge were able to ensure continuity of service, all with minimal disruption to the supply chain.

Looking at distributors, for example, the most successful were the ones who maintained a full workforce, supported and empowered their people during the shift to remote working, and embraced the opportunities created by the new virtual environment, such as online events and training programmes.

Although the pandemic has forced a radical shift in the way channel players do business, it’s also pushed the community to review and optimise existing processes. This has led to new standards in terms of the vendor and employee experience. The roles of channel account managers and sales directors, for instance, have adapted to serve the increasingly digital customer journey, introducing higher levels of automation and agility into the buying process.

Adapting customer experience for the ‘new normal’

As we acclimatise to what follows the pandemic, it’s important for us, as distributors, to reflect on a critically important element of our business. We must reinforce our role as a trusted advisor to vendors, help them acquire new business, all while partnering with them to achieve a strong up-take of the technology among their buyer community. Overall, we’ll support them to identify new green-field opportunities, and provide them with the means to increase market share through ambitious displacement programmes.

To be successful, distributors must help their vendors achieve their business outcomes and generate value. Following the disruption of the last 18 months, the priority should be to put processes and tools in place to simplify the relationship and interaction with the supply chain from order processing to tracking, notification, and so on. An effective and efficient supply chain is built on a healthy partner-vendor relationship, with investment in digitally integrated processes a key way to ensure that is maintained, measured and improved.

Portal applications allow partners to place orders and track deliveries on a self-serve basis. Behind the portal is a system of record that ensures end-to-end traceability: in the face of disruption, it provides the means to swiftly make informed decisions, allowing for the identification of the best course of action to resolve the issue. Sales representatives will continue to play an important and decisive role during the buying process, but vendor and partner interaction with the system of record can streamline and simplify some of the steps of the customer journey. The inherent traceability of the system can support and expose monitoring and notification tools allowing partners to confidently and autonomously track and manage their orders. It enables the creation of an ‘early warning system’ capable of flagging impending disruptions.

Building supply chain resiliency

As COVID-19 has shown, resiliency in the supply chain is more important than ever. Distributors have always had to be reliable and dependable partners, but to meet the challenges of today, they need to pivot to a more resilient supply chain by enhancing predictability and agility, while also driving efficiency. Resiliency in the face of disruptions in the distribution channel can benefit from smart warehouse management and planning for potential disruption. In both cases there is a strong need for observability: smart warehouse management relies on accurate representations of inventory stocks, which in turn can support powerful data analytics, both predictive as well as historical; monitoring across the distribution channel is crucial to detect anomalies and issues along the way, pinpoint where in the process the anomaly is detected so that the appropriate responses are triggered and communicated to support the business continuity of the channel. Digital enablement has a large part to play in building resiliency.

For distributors and their partners in the post-pandemic world, transparency in the supply chain must become a priority. It represents much more than simply gaining more visibility into the overall supply chain. Instead, it’s the process by which distributors make use of the insights gained through that greater visibility, allowing them to identify and mitigate risks more effectively by accessing, learning from, and acting on end-to-end supply chain information.

Being future-ready

Distributors can start by identifying, prioritising, and visualising likely supply chain risks; then, they can use information from other sources such as third-party data, real-time monitoring tools and supplier collaboration to bridge any information gaps; finally, they can move on to managing the insights gained from the process and monitoring the supply chain for additional events and impacts. With this type of process in place, distributors will drive operational improvements and minimise the impact of future disruptions right across the IT supply ecosystem.

The events of last year have reinforced the need for an agile and robust supply chain that will create value for vendors and partners in an unpredictable future. Enhanced resiliency will enable distributors to be more efficient, stable, and remain ahead of the competition, and allow them to spot potential risks, and areas of improvement. Greater transparency will allow distributors to achieve better visibility across all parts of the supply chain, driving improvements, building trust, and empowering them to react faster and more effectively when problems occur.

Antony Byford is managing director at Westcon UK & Ireland

VaxAtlas has launched a digital platform to aid COVID-19 vaccine distribution, making it easy for anyone to schedule and manage their vaccinations.

The platform provides access to certified pharmacies for local appointment scheduling, updates on outbreaks, recall and second-dose reminders, and QR clearance passes for vaccine validation. VaxAtlas’ tool is also HIPAA-compliant and leverages current payment and eligibility standards.

"With no structured approach to reopening, the vaccine management process will be confusing and hard to navigate," said Judi Korzec, CEO and founder, VaxAtlas.

Judi continued, "We want to alleviate the chaos and confusion of waiting in lines, scheduling or being turned away because of supply issues while providing tools to make lives easier for families, employers, travelers and physicians."

VaxAtlas has previously launched support platforms for the H1N1 pandemic and Medicare prescription drug coverage. Building on its over 15 years of vaccine-management experience, VaxAtlas aims to offer a full range of COVID-19 vaccination options, including travel and seasonal vaccines, through a convenient location-based scheduling app.

Additionally, VaxAtlas looks to offer portable vaccination options for employers through dashboards that give a bird's-eye view into COVID-19 hotspots and vaccination uptake. VaxAtlas also includes tools to help manage employee communication.

“Through convenient app-based scheduling anyone anywhere can find a trusted pharmacy, receive reminders, alerts and family vaccinations records compiled into one convenient place,” said VaxAtlas.

Microsoft has announced that it’s disrupted one of the world’s most infamous and prolific ransomware distributors, Trickbot.

Microsoft pulled the plug on Trickbot by obtaining a court order to disable Trickbot’s servers’ IP address. It also collaborated with telecoms worldwide to initiate technical actions to further cripple this infamous botnet.

According to Microsoft’s blog post: “We have now cut off key infrastructure so those operating Trickbot will no longer be able to initiate new infections or activate ransomware already dropped into computer systems.”

This comes just three weeks before the US presidential election, and after the impact threat actors had on the 2016 election, it’s critical even the most remote digital threats to the 2020 election are snuffed out now.

Trickbot’s potential impact on the election is hypothetical at this point, but ransomware could impact it multiple ways, including infecting computers used to maintain voter rolls or report on election-night results. This could inject doubt into the election results, potentially causing nationwide distrust in the results.

Though the Trickbot threat is neutralized, for now, Microsoft couldn’t identify those behind the ransomware. Because the hackers are still at large, Microsoft fully expects Trickbot’s operators to attempt to bring the botnet back online. Microsoft will work with its telecom partners to help keep it down.

To complete its investigation that netted it the court order to shut down Trickbot, Microsoft’s Digital Crimes Unit (DCU) worked with leaders in the tech space, including FS-ISAC, ESET, Lumen’s Black Lotus Labs, NTT and Symantec. The Microsoft Defender team also played a role in the investigation.

Two-thirds (65%) of resellers and distributors wish they had a better relationship with vendors, according to new research from Kaspersky.

Despite this, the same number of resellers and distributors admit to finding it increasingly challenging to build relationships with vendors, while 69% said they would prefer more personal contact with their dedicated account manager.

New research from the cyber security company, which was conducted in the UK in collaboration with Arlington Research, has shown that over three-quarters (77%) of resellers and distributors agree that having a personal relationship with vendors is one of their top priorities.

On the other hand, 71% of the 150 interviewees said that they are the ones burdened with establishing the desired relationship, rather than the vendors themselves.

According to Andy Bogdan, head of UK SMB channel at Kaspersky, the results of the survey are clear symptoms of the loss of "the human touch within the channel".

"It should not stay that way," he said. "In business, relationships are key. Building trust and having good, honest communication between all parties is imperative. Vendors must place a far greater emphasis on putting the customer first, and adopt a genuine, customer-centric approach".

Asked about what he means by "human touch", Bogdan said that Kaspersky is "trying to create this message and understanding that cybersecurity isn't just about the thing through on the laptop".

"Cyber security is about both device-centric security and the human factor because we are probably responsible for 85%+ of cyber security incidents," he told Channel Pro. "We're trying to broaden the message that cyber security isn't just the technology piece - it's also a human piece."

The coronavirus lockdown, resulting in a sudden shift to mass remote working, was one of the events that furthered the need for a more human focus. According to Bogdan, "organisations were running, typically, on average five to 10% of personnel working remotely" before social distancing measures were implemented.

"All of a sudden, this lockdown happened, your entire organization has got to move its entire workforce remotely. Now think of the implications, the consequences or repercussions of that. When it comes on actually moving security from an office to remotely, the human factor is so important,” he said.

One of the ways that the "human touch" might be implemented is by focusing on better customer service - 47% of the resellers and distributors surveyed agreed that it is the most important consideration when deciding which vendor to work with.

Vendors should be able to demonstrate a strong understanding of the industry that resellers and distributors are operating in, as well as provide the opportunity to establish strong relationships with the vendor’s key contacts. 72% of respondents saying that being able to reach the top executives and figureheads is particularly important to them.

According to Bogdan, "it’s not too late for other vendors to take action and ensure personal relationships don’t disappear from the channel altogether", but he added that "they must do so now".

"More direct contact is becoming especially important, given that after the pandemic, remote working could be here to stay for many businesses across the UK," he said.

Over the last few years, there has been a lot of talk regarding how distributors and resellers conduct their operations. Many have suggested that these businesses will need to act in more of an MSP-style manner, or even that of a ‘trusted partner’ in order to continue to operate successfully in the market.

Distributors play a key role in a company’s channel, bridging the gap between the vendor and the reseller. This will often involve helping value-added resellers (VARs) to develop their skills and knowledge base, while firms also bring together products and services from multiple vendors to form a sole point of contact.

Resellers then carry out their role of selling these products on to end users. Through this setup, they can offer customers globally recognised brands, training tools and support for services from a variety of vendors.

However, with the ever-changing IT landscape, are distributors and resellers really on the way out? Perhaps not in the strictest sense – but the way these businesses operate is undoubtedly changing.

Changing IT landscape

Many have suggested that channel companies may need to adapt to a more managed service provider (MSP) approach as IT firms continue to shift their operations to the cloud. This would then involve managing customers’ IT infrastructure with a subscription model, rather than focusing on reselling to customers at a mark-up. Others have also noted that there could be gains to be made by operating as a ‘trusted partner’ for a specific vendor, aiding customers’ IT projects with specific products or tailored services.

Gartner’s predictions for the IT market in 2020 also paint a picture of how the landscape is changing. According to the research firm, the enterprise software segment was expected to be the driving force behind a return-to-growth for EMEA IT spending. Within that, Software as a service (SaaS) was expected to achieve 17.7% growth. IT services and communications services, meanwhile, were predicted to rise by 5.3% and 0.7% respectively, while spending on devices was expected to decline by 1.3%.

While these figures will undoubtedly change due to the coronavirus crisis – Gartner is now predicting an overall contraction of 8% in global IT spend – it still shows that while resellers and distributors still have a fundamental role to play, many IT businesses are already moving towards incorporating more service-based models.

The cloud has a huge role to play, too, as spending continues to rise in the segment. In January, Gartner tipped public cloud services spending to total $57.7 billion in EMEA this year, stating that IT businesses with a high percentage of spending dedicated to the cloud would become “the recognised digital leaders of the future”. Indeed, despite the coronavirus outbreak cloud continues to do well, with Gartner describing it as a “bright spot” amid more gloomy forecasts. Thanks to remote working, public cloud spending is expected to grow by 19%, while spending on cloud-based telephony and messaging and cloud-based conferencing will grow 8.9% and 24.3%, respectively.

Distributors are still finding success in this shifting space by offering a range of cyber and cloud tech products and services to partners. Recently, Infinigate UK, a specialist IT security, cloud and MSP distributor, signed an agreement to distribute A10 Networks’ range of IT solutions. A10 said it selected the firm due to its focused and attentive approach.

“We wanted to work with a distributor that was highly focused and experienced within the channel security space,” explained Chris Martin, A10 Networks’ Channel Sales Director. “When I initially reviewed the business plan and met with team Infinigate UK, I was impressed with its approach to on-boarding a new vendor and how the team quickly aligned to take A10 Networks to the correct type of partner relationship.

“Infinigate UK was not simply adding a new vendor, they wanted to successfully assess A10 Networks with regards to being the right vendor to fulfil their customer and partner requirements.”

He added that vendor partners that develop trusted relationships within key verticals bring the most value and that A10 only works with those that are “happy to develop their technical skills to provide true value to the customer”.

“The solutions we put in place for our valued customers takes time, patience and a lot of attention to detail. Our partners fully embrace that part of the overall project lifecycle, and work closely with A10 Networks on the successful projects we have delivered. Our partners are focused on solutions, not transactions,” he said.

Adapting to market disruptions

While there is success to be found, recent severe disruptions to the tech industry and its supply chains means adaptation to market trends is more vital than ever. Incidents such as the COVID-19 pandemic and US-China trade tensions have seen hardware manufacturers and vendors hit hard.

In fact, in light of the coronavirus outbreak, analysis firm Forrester revised its 2020 tech market forecast to predict a slow-down of growth to around 2% in a best-case scenario, assuming major economies recover in the second half of the year. There is also a 50% chance that US and global markets will decline by 2% or more this year if a full recession occurs. This could mean tricky times for traditional distributors and resellers.

“In either scenario, computer and communications equipment spending will be weakest, with potential declines of 5% to 10%,” said Andrew Bartels, VP and Principal Analyst at Forrester. “Tech consulting and systems integration services spending will be flat in a temporary slowdown and could be down by up to 5% if firms really cut back on new tech projects.”

During this particular disruption, IT firms that have adapted to offer MSP-style focused cloud services will be of most use to businesses and end users, as the majority of people work and study remotely.

“The only positive notes would be continued growth in demand for cloud infrastructure services and potential increases in spending on specialised software, communications equipment, and telecom services for remote work and education as firms encourage workers to work from home and schools move to online courses,” Bartels added.

Value-added distributor CMS Distribution has announced the acquisition of French firm Avesta, as the firm looks to strengthen its position as one of Europe’s leading IT specialist distributors.

A specialist distributor of hardware technologies such as mobile services and high-tech products, Avesta employs 32 people and is focused on the French market.

By acquiring the business, CMS Distribution said it has enhanced its presence in the country, with its partners now set to have access to a broader portfolio of products.

“We are delighted to welcome Avesta to the group, they have a great reputation for excellent customer service and product knowledge which perfectly complements CMS’ values,” said Frank Salmon, founder and CEO of CMS Distribution.

“Going forward our French customers will gain access to an increased product portfolio, additional sales and marketing resources and more competitive offerings. We are very excited to offer our vendor partners new routes to market, allowing them to explore new business opportunities.”

The acquisition takes the number of CMS employees to over 400 across the group, with the distributor now boasting a “very strong foothold” in Europe. That presence now covers the UK, Ireland, France, Benelux and Scandinavia, as well as locations in China and the US, which was established back in 2018.

CMS said it will continue to run the business under the Avesta brand for the foreseeable future, with the firm’s leadership team to remain and help drive growth of the business across the continent.

“We are excited to be part of a large global distribution business and CMS has certainly demonstrated their growth plans in recent years,” commented Jeanluc Delaunay, Directeur Général at Avesta. “It will be great to be able to leverage their systems, resources and some of their Vendor partners going forward, so we can embark on this journey of growth together.”

Elsewhere, CMS has also relocated its warehouse and integration facility to a new 150,000 sq ft logistic centre in Castleford, as it looks to increase integration capability and continue with customised warehousing services.

The distributor also revealed that it is also offering vendors and customers additional storage capacity for Brexit contingency planning.

Alibaba Cloud has continued its EMEA expansion by entering into a new distribution agreement with Arrow Electronics.

Under the new partnership, Arrow will become one of the firms' EMEA distributors, as well as its first distributor in the UK. This means it will offer the data intelligence arm of the Alibaba Group's full suite of solutions built on the Alibaba Cloud infrastructure to businesses and channel customers across the region.

“Growing rapidly, Alibaba Cloud is one of the biggest public cloud providers globally, and our agreement [will] bring, in particular, smaller and medium channel players the opportunity to work with Alibaba Cloud in the EMEA market,” said Alexis Brabant, vice president of sales for Arrow’s EMEA enterprise computing solutions business.

“As we are moving into the world of multi-cloud, our clients can now choose from an even broader range and variety of solutions and services tailored to their end-customer’s needs.”

Established in 2009, Alibaba Cloud has now grown to operate 61 availability zones across 20 regions worldwide. Last year, Alibaba Cloud began building its presence in the UK with the opening of two data centres in the London area, adding to its existing bases in Frankfurt and mainland China.

The firm said its expansion into the region will help more businesses reap the benefits of its products and services, with Arrow best-placed to help bring customer cloud ambitions to fruition.

While Arrow is the first UK distributor to be signed by the company, the deal is not exclusive, and the cloud giant confirmed that it is actively in the process of further expanding its channel ecosystem in Europe and the UK by pursuing agreements with distributors, resellers, and systems integrators.

“As a global leader in data intelligence, we understand the opportunities that cloud technologies can create for their channel partners,” added Max Tao, senior manager of alliances at Alibaba Cloud International.

“We are excited to collaborate with Arrow for its first-class services, cloud-enablement capabilities and local expertise. We will work together to help more regional and local channel companies start their journey into cloud and data intelligence.”

Cybersecurity distributor e92plus has announced a partnership with Blueliv, one of the leading cyber threat intelligence providers, in a move the firm says will help channel VARs and MSPs to successfully tackle the next generation of cyber threats.

The distribution partnership will help Blueliv grow its UK channel, e92plus said, while resellers and providers will be better equipped to respond to the growing demand for user-friendly insight, data and actionable intelligence into future cyber threats.

With Gartner predicting forecasting the threat intelligence market to hit almost $1.8 billion by 2021, combined with an annual growth rate of 25%, the firm added that threat intelligence represents a “huge” opportunity for the cybersecurity channel to access that new revenue.

“As the market changes and our VARs increasingly look to expand into margin rich services, Blueliv offers the perfect opportunity to combine that with one of the fastest growing areas in cyber security,” said Mukesh Gupta, CEO and founder of e92plus.

“The threat from bad actors, criminals and nation states has never been more complex, and Blueliv offers personalised insight that enables our partners to support their customers in taking cybersecurity from a reactive to a proactive posture, enabling them to better manage cyber risk and support the business-wide digital transformation agenda.”

With Blueliv, organisations gain highly accurate and verified global data feeds that can be used with their existing security information and event management (SIEM) software to detect and prioritise advanced threats. Delivered in STIX/TAXII standard using open integration standards, the data helps businesses gain improved ROI from SIEM systems – while CISOs can predict where threats will focus, respond with speed and improve future resilience.

Blueliv has already been recognised for industry leadership with the provider being named ‘Threat Intelligence Company of the Year’ by the Cybersecurity Breakthrough Awards 2018, as well as being listed a ‘Cool Vendor’ by Gartner.

“Threat Intelligence is a new but rapidly expanding marketplace, offering ample opportunity with huge growth potential in the UK,” said Zoe Clark, Channel Director at Blueliv. “Blueliv is at the pinnacle of this with our award-winning Threat Compass solution, delivering modular and targeted SaaS threat intelligence, and helping organisations accelerate business performance and improve security resilience.”

Nuvias has become One Identity’s latest distributor, responsible for sell the company's software and services around the UK.

The company was chosen to distribute One Identity’s products because it provides the sales, service, technical and marketing support to help resellers grow their business faster.

Nuvias will help identify new opportunities for One Identity to enter the market, working directly with partners to roll out the platform and help business to achieve a return on their investment within weeks rather than months or years.

“We are delighted to be working with Nuvias as we believe they can create value for us, by identifying and mobilising some of the best reseller partners to sell One Identity - as part of a joint plan to accelerate our EMEA business,” Jon Gillies, EMEA Distribution Partnerships at One Identity, said.

One Identity identity protection cuts down the time needed for IT staff to protect a network, automating identity government, privileged account management and access control.

As well as saving businesses time and money through eliminating many of the manual processes, One Identity’s security platform is also scalable and can be built on a modular basis so customers can pick and mix only the elements they need to build their security solution.

“Organisations today are challenged by the complexity of access management and the increasing regulatory demands being made upon them,” Ian Kilpatrick, EVP of cybersecurity at Nuvias said. “One Identity is a multi-layered solution that deals with the real world. It allows users to begin at one point and gradually roll out more integrated modules to build up a comprehensive, automated IAM system, which is suitable for on premises, hybrid and cloud use.”

Tech Data will distribute Cisco Meraki Go Wi-Fi products across Europe, after the firm announced a new continent-wide distribution deal with the networking giant.

Cisco’s Meraki Go range aims to provide simple yet powerful Wi-Fi access for small-to-medium businesses with under 50 employees, with both indoor and outdoor access points available to customers for up to four wireless networks. Tech Data says that these access points represent a significant opportunity for SMB-focused resellers.

“We’re excited about leveraging Tech Data’s extensive reach in the SMB market to drive the growth of the Cisco Meraki solution,” said Jason Boxall, vice president of Vendors and Alliances, Europe, at Tech Data. “This is a tremendous opportunity for existing Meraki partners to extend their presence into the SMB space. It also opens the door for resellers who are focused on serving the needs of smaller businesses to take the Meraki brand to market for the first time.”

Tech Data added that key targets for the Meraki Go solutions will include SMBs such as independent cafes and bars, smaller hotels, retail outlets and small business offices.

“There is still significant room for growth with WiFi in the SMB market,” Boxall added. “Meraki is a leading solution in the enterprise space, and with the Meraki Go solution it is ready to also make its impact felt in the SMB sector.”

The company will be working closely with Cisco so that all partners have access to the Meraki Go access points, as well as ensuring that sales and marketing materials and support are readily available.

“There is vast potential for our SMB partners to deliver the performance and reliability for which Meraki is renowned to their customers, and we will be working with Tech Data to make it as easy as possible for them to deliver the benefits that Meraki Go solutions offer,” said Kevin Rezai, global product sales lead at Meraki Go, Cisco.

Meraki Go solutions will see a “progressive rollout” across Europe, Tech Data said.

The role of a distributor is changing. It's transforming from simply managing the supply chain to providing end-to-end support for resellers. Distributors are also becoming the voice piece for vendors, helping them decipher what end-users are asking for.

But clearly more needs to be done. According to our recent research, over half of IT security resellers don't think distributors are supporting them enough, which makes it clear distributors need to be much better at being the key communicator between vendor and reseller. Ultimately, it will make distributors more trusted across the board.

Communication with partners

The journey to becoming the voice piece starts with understanding the partner's business inherently. Having knowledge of the products that end-users are asking for, where they have had successes in the past and what their business is already selling are the three most important things to understand from the relationship.

Getting to know this valuable information can only happen through ongoing conversations with partners. Distributors that know what their customers are asking for and where they've celebrated success in the past will be able to refer to these success stories during their pitches. They'll be able to offer the right product at the right time.

For example, when selling in a new vendor or vendor's product to a partner, the sales team should take the time to organise initial conference calls with partners they think may be interested, basing the conversation around the successes they've had. They can then pitch the vendors and technologies based upon exactly what their end-users are interested in, rather than taking a stab in the dark.

The next step is technical validation through a web demo to make sure the product is as good and as relevant as a distributor is saying it is. The validation stage is to make sure the product really will work for the end-users.

The final stage is a conversation around the onboarding programme, because not everybody has the same groups of customers to target particular products at. If a partner predominantly has technically-led salespeople, that's going to be a different conversation to one aimed at a purely sales organisation that maybe doesn't have the technical expertise.

The entire process is about understanding the reseller's business as much as possible. Instead of one-size-fits-all, it's vital to tailor the approach and the onboarding process to make sure partners are getting what they know will result in sales. It shows to the partner that the distributor is actually listening to them.

Communication with the vendors

Feeding back what a distributor has heard from its partner network to the vendor is a major part of what makes the sales channel work. If vendors aren't taking onboard what a distributor, its partners, or even the end-users are saying, they will soon find they won't have as many customers on board.

Using a collaboration platform where the vendor can see each stage of the sell-in process, including feedback from partners, is also key. At Alpha Generation, we use the detail and analysis within our systems to create a collaborative workspace for each of the vendors we work in. We have four silos set up, each representing the different stages of our sell-in process, with the first stage being the most important for the vendor to pay attention to. We make notes when we talk to a partner, so everything is documented and the vendors can see the feedback we're getting.

As is the case with the relationship with the partner, the next key stage in the vendor process is onboarding. And that's where it's essential the distributor actually understands the business of the partner and is able to pass that insight onto the vendor.

For example, a vendor may want to pitch into a partner it thought could become an opportunity, however, thanks to a close relationship with the partner, you may know that it only has one customer relevant to the vendor's business. With this knowledge, you would be able to push back on the vendor and to ensure that they're not wasting the partner's time.

Quality not quantity

If resellers are to feel better supported in the channel, distributors need to take this approach. Having a clear communication network with the vendor and with partners that can pass on information about what their customers really want is becoming an integral part of a distributor's role.

Gone are the days when distributors were expected to chase after as many partners as they possibly could to get a vendor's product or service on their books.

It's now much more important for partners, whether resellers, MSPs or systems integrators, to provide end-users with what they want, or at least advise on the different options. That means the entire supply chain - the vendor, distributor, partner and customer - needs to wholly understand what every part of the chain really needs - and the distributor needs to be at the centre.

Chris Walsh is sales director at Alpha Generation

Simms has become a key distributor for Intel's Enterprise SSD range as the company seeks to build its enterprise portfolio through the distribution of what it views as essential hardware for businesses.

Although the company already offers other storage options from Pretec and Kingston, Simms explained it wants to continue building the storage division of its business, and carrying Intel's full range of products will enable it to do so.

“Data centres will be a key focus for us," Simms’ chief sales officer, Kevin Howse, explained. "It’s a sector with a clear challenge to future proof enterprise infrastructure with extraordinary performance and reliability and Intel’s range meets and exceeds that requirement. There is also clear potential for us to maximise and develop consumer, professional and embedded opportunities."

Intel also uses a number of other major UK distributors to get its products out to market, incuding Arrow, Avnet, Exertis, Ingram and Tech Data, which means Simms joins a pretty competitive marketplace for distribution of storage products.

However, Howse thinks Simms' experience supporting MSPs, VARs and system integrators will help reduce their costs and improve efficencies for customers.

"Simms specialises in memory and storage, so we are well-positioned to advise on the merits of Intel as a world-class product offering, as well as to provide the benefit of our expertise to ensure that our clients get what they need to help their customers overcome challenges,” he added.

Simms will sell Intel’s SSDs in a range of capacities up to 8TB, across multiple form factors including 2.5”, M.2, AIC and U.2, with their full range of interface options including SATA III and PCIe NVMe.

Nimble Storage products will be made available through Tech Data's Azlan TS, Ingram Micro and Westcoast from 1 November, HPE has revealed, six months after its acquisition of the vendor.

HPE has made the decision to use its own storage distribution partners to sell Nimble's full set of products once they join HPE's price list in November.

The products are currently available through Arrow ECS, Azlan TS and Ingram Micro, but it's not clear what role Arrow ECS may have in the new setup. Arrow ECS's spokesperson told Channel Pro that Arrow currently remains a Nimble distributor.

Arrow is currently the largest Nimble Storage distributor, as well as selling SimpliVity hyperconverged products, which HPE also acquired this year.

HPE said in a statement: "HPE are currently reviewing the HPE FY18 Nimble distribution landscape and further announcements will be made once this process is complete."

Westcoast is the first to sell Nimble's entry-level products to HPE's reseller community, after the products were added to HPE's price list.

Westcoast managing director Alex Tatham said on LinkedIn: "Let me be the first to celebrate with our Westcoast sales and pre-sales team that have made HPE's first Nimble sale to a great UK reseller. This product needs to be seen to be believed and the channel is going to love InfoSight, the predictive analysis tool it comes with."

IT security vendor Gemalto is set to partner with Exclusive Networks to focus on selling data protection services in the UK and Nordics.

Exclusive has got sole distribution rights for Gemalto's services from 1 January, and will work on helping partners sell Gemalto's products to exploit the growing focus on the EU's upcoming General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and data breaches.

Channel Pro spoke to both Phil Holmes, UK channel sales director for Gemalto, and Graham Jones, UK country manager at Exclusive, about how they plan to roll out this new strategy.

Phil Holmes, UK channel sales director for Gemalto

What benefits do you expect from only having one distribution partner?

The biggest benefit is the dedicated service we will receive. Previously we were a shared resource for our partners, but now we will have a team solely dedicated to our solutions. This should help us in our ambition to extend our growth and help our customers with their data protection challenges in the age of increasing breaches and GDPR.

Why did you pick Exclusive for your distribution strategy, above other providers?

Our relationship with Exclusive Networks has been in place for around 10 years, so their knowledge of our business is unparalleled. With much opportunity in the sector, their proactive approach to working with resellers means they'll be able to help us educate businesses on the threats and how to comply with regulations, such as the upcoming GDPR. Exclusive Networks also pledges to provide advance training for its technical staff, which was a real plus for us.

How will this change the way you work with partners in the UK and Nordics?

It will allow us to get our message out there and be more proactive in how we're dealing with everyone, including partners. We will be able to ensure marketing programmes are brought together and enable us to do more with the same resource. We expect our sales, technical and marketing efforts to all be enhanced by working together as one team with Exclusive Networks, and therefore make a significant positive impact to the service we jointly provide to our channel partners.

Graham Jones, UK country manager at Exclusive Networks

How can Gemalto and its channel partners address the data protection challenges customers are facing?

With Gemalto's encryption and key management solutions at the core, and the synergy with alliance vendors such as Palo Alto and Nutanix, we will be looking to build the Gemalto brand and assist our partners and their customers in filling their security gaps, which will allow our partners to increase their revenue streams into new customers.

What can channel partners in the UK & Nordics expect to get out of this programme?

With [initiatives like] CARM for GDPR (Controls assurance and risk management), it allows us to build our vendor stacks, making it easier for our partners to sell. As part of the initiative we offer marketing support, lead generation, evaluation kits and sales support. We like to see ourselves as an extension to their own organisation.

What does this mean for existing Gemalto customers?

We will be working closely with Gemalto to migrate their existing customers over by the end of the year, which will include a welcome pack to all customers so they know exactly who to contact. Whilst Gemalto aren't looking to over recruit new partners, we will assist them in identifying the right, technically-enabled customers that can help them in growing their business.

Security intelligence vendor Exabeam has chosen Exclusive Networks as its sole UK distributor, with a view to expanding this into further EMEA territories later in 2016.

The agreement is part of the Silicon Valley vendor’s plans to recruit specialist partners, VARs and international/global SIs to exceed what it describes as “ambitious revenue targets.”

Exabeam produces user and entity behavioural analytics (UEBA) for tracking down elusive threats within the corporate network. The company claims its Stateful User Tracking automatically creates a complete timeline of every event and anomaly tied to an attack, across devices, IP addresses, and credentials, and uses that timeline to assess risk and automate many incident response tasks.

“Sooner or later, every enterprise is affected by threats that penetrate outer defences and secretly work their way across to the most sensitive or valuable data assets. Clues to these dangerous attacks are typically undetectable or hidden in masses of logs and other security big data. This is what Exabeam was designed for; putting security operations teams straight on the scent and in for the kill,” comments Graham Jones, country manager at Exclusive Networks UK, who adds that the technology “is highly pertinent to Exclusive’s CARM [Cyber Attack Remediation & Migration] solution framework.”

The distie says that as well as its integration within the CARM framework, its role includes educating the channel about the opportunities surrounding UEBA and the Exabeam platform, and accrediting resellers to the Exabeam partner programme.

“Exclusive Networks is well respected and we’re excited to be building out our channel with them as a true extension of our team,” says Brett Candon, EMEA channel director at Exabeam. “They understand Exabeam’s position in the market and the opportunities that lie ahead for our partners. They have the right pedigree to help Exabeam fully execute on its growth plan. The VCs of Exabeam involved in the likes of Palo Alto, Fire Eye and Imperva have witnessed this previously and we look forward to a longstanding, successful relationship.”

Citrix (NASDAQ: CTXS) has revealed it is to shake up its distributor incentive programme to provide a consistent service across all geographies.

Speaking to Channel Pro at the vendor’s annual partner event, Citrix Summit, channel chief Kimberly Martin said the company is lacking “a consistent global programme”.

She explained: “It’s important we have a worldwide distribution strategy as we have a worldwide distribution partners, and we’re handling them dramatically differently between our geos today.”

Although there are no firm details yet on the changes, Martin says Citrix’s distributor channel in EMEA “needs to focus a little bit less on the operational component and more on where there business is moving, which is around training and development of our silver partners.”

Martin added she had received feedback from distributors that claimed the current system did little to help them with smaller deals.

“They said: ‘You pay me X percent on $1m deals and I don’t touch that deal…At the same time if I do a deal with a silver partner that I’ve spent time developing and building training for, and enabling and sending people out to understand the Citrix solution set – I get paid the same percentage but it’s a much smaller deal size. I’d rather pay more for the silvers and less for the $1m deal.’”

A priority, says the channel exec, is hiring a new worldwide distribution lead before implementing any changes.

Jason Tooley, Citrix country manager UK and Ireland, says he expects the new approach will be “positively received” by Citrix UK disties Tech Data and Arrow ECS.

“As a supplier we’re looking to create more revenue for distribution that they can reinvest back into the business. That reinvestment means building better skills that they can then enable our partners to drive more capability,” he told Channel Pro. “They’ve been asking us about this over the last six to nine months, and they’ll see this as a positive way forward.”

He added: “We rely heavily on distribution in many different areas, not just in our smaller partners. We expect distribution to have a key role with our managed partners as well. We need distribution to carry a heavy load and the more revenue and investment, we create the better the results will be.”

See also:

Distributors: what do they really bring to the table?

Citrix unveils back to basics strategy

Citrix announces midmarket push

Endpoint security company Avecto has expanded its distribution footprint in the UK with a new agreement with Wick Hill.

Wick Hill will offer the British vendor’s Defendpoint software – which combines privilege management, application control and sandboxing in a single integrated security suite – to its reseller base.

“These three areas combine to help organisations solve many of the modern day security challenges outlined by third parties like NIST, CPNI, SANS and GCHQ/CESG in their cyber essentials guidance,” says Richard Brooks, VP of sales for EMEA.

“Defendpoint proves that prevention is possible by tackling the new threat landscape head on and mitigating against unknown threats, which many legacy security solutions can’t. Many of these solutions rely on reacting to stop the threat, whereas we believe it’s best to stop the threat ever reaching your environment in the first place. This is why we advocate the principle of defence in depth which Defendpoint offers.”

Ian Kilpatrick, chairman Wick Hill Group says that while some businesses have some elements of this, very few have all three.

He comments: “Avecto’s Defendpoint…works alongside the majority of our portfolio to fill this increasingly important threat area of managing user privileges, which is an ever increasing risk area, application control so that only valid applications are run, and sandboxing – securely managing against day zero threats actually getting on to the network through users accessing or being exposed to day zero attacks.

“In combination this radically reduces the risks from threats that users can expose themselves to outside the network or which have evaded existing security protection.”

Established in 2008, Cheshire-based Avecto has offices in the US, Australia and DACH region.

The vendor signed up Arrow ECS in January as part of a drive to sign up new channel partners.*

On its decision to add Wick Hill to its distribution line-up, Brooks tells Channel Pro: “For a fast growing vendor like Avecto we needed a partner that was prepared to work with us in developing our channel footprint. Wick Hill also has a track record of taking a business of our size ($28,000,000 revenue globally) to even greater success with their expertise and specialist knowledge in the UK channel security space.”

Brooks adds that Avecto’s partner programme “is proving very attractive, with a generous tiered structure of margin discount and deal registration.”

He adds: “We also assist partners with Wick Hill to build their professional services capabilities to deliver Avecto solutions and increase the value they bring to their customers. Our philosophy is to work with the Partners to build a joint go-to-market plan that ensures success.”

Update: Avecto confirmed after the story's publication that it is no longer working with Arrow.

Trend Micro has bolstered its UK distributor line-up with the addition of e92plus, in a move to expand its partner network and grow midmarket sales.

Based in Surrey, and with additional offices in Manchester and the Netherlands, security distributor e92plus joins existing Trend disties Arrow ECS and Blue Solutions.

The vendor says its chose e92plus after “a rigorous selection process”, citing its skills at delivering quick growth and partner enablement for midmarket resellers.

James Munroe, channel sales manager, UK & Ireland at Trend Micro says it will be working with e92plus to provide “a wide breath of technical and marketing resources as well as closely align our channel team to show our ongoing commitment to this partnership.”

Mukesh Gupta, MD at e92plus, describes Trend Micro as “a perfect complement to our product range that covers huge growth areas of security, virtualisation and data protection.”

Trend Micro announced a major expansion in its UK channel team last year, comprising a three-fold increase in regional account managers (RAMs) and a doubling of its technical sales team.

It also launched a global channel programme that it said combines the best elements from its regional programmes.

Attachmate has added a second distributor to its UK line-up in the form of CMS Distribution.

Storage, networking and IT infrastructure specialist CMS joins Arrow ECS in distributing Attachmate’s portfolio in the UK.

“Following the Attachmate Group and Micro Focus merger, CMS now represents a number of Micro Focus brands including Attachmate, Novell, NetIQ and SUSE,” explains Barry Davis, sales director UK & Ireland, Attachmate. “This distribution agreement means that CMS now offers a complementary and very comprehensive solution set, providing a complete range of enterprise IT products for modern businesses.”

Adds Andy Bass, group sales and marketing director, CMS Distribution: “Mobility continues to present challenges for businesses but by offering Attachmate and Novell solutions under one roof, CMS is perfectly positioned to help businesses overcome those challenges and enable secure mobility for our customers.

“We are looking forward to speaking to new and existing customers about how Attachmate solutions can help them meet their business goals.”

Following a successful pilot programme in the US, Polycom will bring Video as a Service (VaaS) to the UK in partnership with distributor Imago Group.

Imago will be the first to market with the Polycom Powered subscription-based cloud video service RealPresence Cloud Video Meeting Services. It will also enhance its VaaS-t cloud video service.

“We’ve listened to our customers, and we recognise that in today’s business environment, organisations need to be flexible, both in terms of work styles and IT services. That’s why we have rolled out our VaaS offering in the UK, after a successful launch in North America,” says Glynn Jones, VP Advanced Technology Group, Polycom.

“The scalability and flexibility offered by software in a virtualised environment, coupled with a subscription-based pricing model is a great option for many of our customers.”

Through the partnership with Imago and its VaaS-t service, Polycom is able to offer a set of always-on virtual meeting rooms or VMRs connecting a variety of voice and video endpoints. It is priced either by participant or by the minute.

Ian Vickerage, managing director of Imago Group says that while video as a service isn’t new, the VaaS-t from Polycom changes the game: “Up until now end users have had to choose from services available from suppliers with limited financial resources and stability.

“Polycom users can be totally confident that this service will be compatible with their existing video estate whilst accessing support for their video endpoints and video service from the same supplier…this project will bring the business benefits of videoconferencing to a whole new range of organisations.”

In order to provide the best opportunities for partners, Polycom offers RealPresence Cloud as a wholesale, white-labeled solution. This allows the channel to bring their cloud video service to market quickly.

Says Jones: “Partners are a critical component of Polycom’s success. Together, we serve a diverse customer base with unique challenges to solve. Our combined efforts help them succeed, and we will continue to drive growth and broader adoption of Polycom’s video, voice and content collaboration solutions.”

Peplink, manufacturer of VPN bonding and internet load balancing products, has added to its distribution line-up with 4Gon Solutions.

4Gon joins current Peplink distie Cloud Distribution.

The specialist distributor of Wi-Fi, cellular and wireless communications hardware will offer the entire Peplink portfolio, alongside pres and post-sales technical advice and support for its resellers.

Craig Herrett, sales manager at 4Gon says the distributor has been “very impressed” with Peplink for some time, and “have been courting” the firm since it launched its UK office in 2012.

“This announcement is effectively the start of our formal relationship,” he comments.

“Peplink is a great addition to our portfolio and delivers a number of unique features such as mobile fleet management and policy based link aggregation which makes its products stand out from the crowd which helps with our awareness raising activities,” adds 4Gon’s marketing manager, David Frith.

“4Gon is a highly respected distributor and its focus, especially on the 3G/4G router space is an area we believe is showing the fastest level of growth for our product sets,” adds Andy Harris, sales director for Peplink.

“Over the coming months, we look forward to working on a number of educational and training programmes to help further educate channel partners.”

Data backup and disaster recovery vendor, StorageCraft Technology, has brought on board Blue Solutions as a distributor in the UK, a key market as it looks to expand its end-user and partner base in Europe.

Blue Solutions will open up its SMB channel to StorageCraft and will also become a master managed service provider for the UK.

“We are delighted to continue to grow our collaboration with Blue Solutions in the United Kingdom,” comments Ian Mason, StorageCraft’s sales director for Europe, who says the vendor already work with a network of MSPs and VARs in the UK.

“We have an exciting range of data backup and recovery solutions that is specifically targeted to meet the needs of small and medium-sized businesses. We are confident the distributor dealership with Blue Solutions will help us expand our UK operations.”

Mark Charleton, co-founder and director of Blue Solutions, believes it will be able to actively recruit new resellers, incentivise, train and support them long-term for StorageCraft. “We only work with vendors that we believe have products and services that add competitive advantage to our customers' business. This is most certainly the case with the StorageCraft product range and the flagship ShadowProtect product line.”

“The StorageCraft partner programme is a very attractive one – no fees to sign up, NFR (not for resale) software, training, marketing incentives, etc. and we will provide all the support, training and marketing collateral for resellers to take out to end-user customers.”

Brocade (NASDAQ:BRCD) and Arrow have penned a UK distributor deal, meaning Arrow will have access to the full Brocade IP networking solution portfolio.

John Mitchell, head of channel EMEA for Brocade says: “Brocade’s EMEA Channel organisation continues to build out our focus on extending our reach and amplifying the demand and relevance around our brand.”

Brocade and Arrow are already working together across in EMEA, including in Spain where a similar deal has also just been signed off. Mitchell says the on-boarding of Arrow UK is an extension of an existing and trusted relationship.

Arrow’s vendor portfolio already includes a high number of Brocade OEM relationships including EMC, NetApp and IBM that offer complimentary storage, virtualisation and server technologies.

The distie’s focuses on a highly virtualised datacentre infrastructure and cloud strategy fits for where Brocade sees the market moving, Mitchell says.

“Cloud computing is one area where our combined strengths will provide added value for partners that are looking to move from a vintage hardware resell model to a more progressive go-to-market strategy that includes managed or cloud services,” he says.

Research by Brocade shows that 92 percent of senior IT decision makers feel that their current infrastructure is not scalable enough to support next generation applications and so are seeking new data centre solutions to accommodate their needs.

David Ellis, director of strategy at Arrow ECS UK and Ireland says: “Our commitment to developing datacentre solutions that don’t just fix the issues of today, but also address customer challenges five years out, means Brocade IP solutions such as fabrics and SDN are a perfect fit for us and our customers.”

The two companies will build a demonstration suite in the UK to support channel sales and training for channel partners, so they can make the most of the partnership and focus on selling products customers are calling for.

Mitchell says the addition of Arrow to Brocade’s line-up will not affect its relationship with its three other distributors Avnet, Azlan and Zycko, which focus on selling Brocade’s Vyatta software-defined networking technology.

Imago has signed a new deal with communications provider RingCentral to distribute the company’s cloud business phone systems to its reseller network in the UK.

RingCentral’s cloud platform supports Polycom handsets, which are distributed by Imago, meaning that resellers are able to sell a complete cloud phone solution to customers through the alliance.

“The cloud services marketplace is experiencing vast growth through rapid innovation, providing huge opportunities for both businesses and reseller channels,” says Wayne Mason, head of group products and marketing, Imago. “RingCentral Office is mobile-centric, easy to sell, deploy, manage and use. Distributing RingCentral’s solution in the UK gives us the opportunity to enhance our existing managed services offering.”

RingCentral Office is a complete cloud business phone system that’s designed for today’s mobile and dispersed workforces. It provides an alternative to complex, on-premise legacy phone systems and fits well within Imago’s portfolio.

“We’re pleased to announce our new relationship with Imago,” said Lars Nordhild Ronning, general manager EMEA, RingCentral. “As businesses look to connect their increasingly mobile and dispersed workforces with best-in-class solutions, our alliance with Imago will now help more companies experience the wide benefits of cloud communications.”

York based Varlink has announced that is has completed the integration of its EPoS sales division, EPoS Distributor into its existing product portfolio, meaning that for the first time resellers will be able to view and order the full portfolio of products online.

Since its launch in 2009, EPoS Distributor has operated as a separate brand entity while sharing back office resources such as marketing and finance with Varlink.

The EPoS Distributor brand will now be retired, according to Mike Pullon, Varlink CEO, who comments: “When the EPoS Distribution division was established there was a clear separation between the products purchased by EPoS specialists and those taken by our established Varlink customer base. Over time, whilst there remains some fundamental differences, there are many product sets that are of interest to both segments of our customer base. We have therefore moved from two websites to a single Varlink branded site which carries all mobile computing, label printing, data capture, networking and EPoS brands.”

Resellers can now access everything online on EPOS terminals, receipts printers, touch screens and other EPOS peripherals online alongside Varlink’s mobile computing and data capture product set. Including products from Honeywell, Casio, Datalogic and Zebra technologies.

According to Varlink, the integration of EPoS Distributor will provide resellers with the choice needed to support technology trends around tablets and mobility in the workplace.

European officials have arrested 97 people, including 17 Brits, connected with the distribution of malware program BlackShades.

A two-day operation conducted by Eurojust, with help from the FBI, the European Cybercrime Centre and the UK's National Crime Agency, resulted in arrests in 16 countries around the globe

Computers, laptops, mobile devices, routers, firearms and drugs were seized in raids across Europe and the US.

The BlackShades malware, specifically its remote access tool (RAT), is at the centre of the arrests. The RAT allows an attacker to remotely control another person's computer, as well as record keystrokes and command the host PC to carry out DDoS attacks.

The RAT can also lock and encrypt files on a user's computer, freeing them only after the victim has paid a ransom to a specified bank account. The software can be purchased for less than 100, and, unless installed on another user's computer, is not actually illegal.

The investigation targeted developers and prolific users of the malware, and believes that UK users alone have extracted over 200,000 usernames and passwords from victims around the globe.

One 18-year old man infected at least 2,000 computers in order to control their webcams, before taking photos of the women and girls using them.

"Criminals throughout the UK and across the world are finding out that committing crimes remotely offers no protection from arrest," said Andy Archibald, deputy director of the NCA's National Cyber Crime Unit.

"The unique scale of this cyber operation shows what can happen when law enforcement agencies at local, national and international level work together to tackle the perpetrators and help keep people safe," he added.

Azlan SDG has signed a distribution agreement with Avaya to offer the vendor’s full range of telephony, unified communications and networking products.

As part of the agreement, Azlan will also provide channel development and support services across its UK partner community.

The partnership extends an existing European deal with Tech Data as Azlan SDG is the value-added distribution arm of Computer 2000, part of the Tech Data Group. Avaya also has distribution agreements with Scansource, Westcon and Imago, with the latter focusing on video conferencing solutions.

“The addition of Avaya to the Azlan SDG portfolio opens up new potential for the channel to address the business communications needs of customers,” explains Paul Eccleston, MD EMEA at Azlan SDG. “It will enable us to make use of both our specialist solution building capability and our un-paralleled partner network to develop new opportunities for growth.”

The distie is preparing an on-boarding programme and will be running a number of workshops and training sessions for both established and new Avaya partners.

Thomas Veit, senior director, EMEA distribution channel at Avaya, adds, “Azlan already have a proven track record of value added distribution for Avaya on an EMEA wide basis. The integration of the SDG business division into Azlan in the UK created an opportunity to extend Azlan into this territory. The joint Azlan SDG business has all the key skill sets we are looking for to drive the UK business into further growth.”

Security distributor Vigil Software has signed a three year agreement with Egress Software to help grow its channel programme in the UK, with a target of recruiting 20 new partners.

A key objective says Vigil, is to build a strong sales pipeline for Egress’ email encryption and secure data transfer software – particularly focusing on the UK public sector and other organisations looking to comply with the data protection act.

Vigil will provide a deal registration programme, promising partners “good margins”. It’s also offering a range of new sales and marketing initiatives and 24/7 service support as part of its partner programme.

Alex Teh, commercial director of Vigil Software, says he’s already seeing interest in Egress’ encryption software, with three “significant deals” completed. “As more employees work remotely, there is a serious requirement for collaborative security solutions that can measure up to advanced threats,” he comments.

Adds Tony Pepper, CEO & co-founder of Egress Software Technologies: “We’re excited about working alongside Vigil and see this as a great opportunity to develop our rapidly expanding customer base.”

Security software vendor Bitdefender is on the hunt for a third distributor in a bid to ramp up sales in the UK.

“We’re looking for a reasonably large distributor who’s got history in the market, has good reach in terms of their number of resellers and they have a pedigree in business solutions, rather than a broadliner,” Bitdefender’s UK managing director, Peter Barlow, told Channel Pro.

Barlow joined Bitdefender in February 2011, vowing to grow its B2B market share, despite the Romania-based firm being predominantly known for its consumer and OEM business. Barlow maintains that while retail and consumer are still important to Bitdefender – he cites its awards from Which? Best Buy and others as carrying credence in its move over to the B2B space – he says retail is “a dying market” for the firm and “the real growth is going to come out of the business side.”

While Barlow admits its market share in the B2B side of the UK security market is miniscule – only a few percent – he says he expects Bitdefender to establish itself as a player by the end of 2012. “We want to see the Symantecs, MacAfees, Trends, becoming very much aware of us operating in that space, because of course they’re not aware of us at the moment,” he says.

Key to this move has been getting in front of a large number of UK resellers; following an ill-fated relationship with CMI Labs, the firm appointed distributor Enta Tech in April this year. (Elsewhere Koch Media handles its retail business.) Now, in line with plans to unveil a new security line for the virtualised environments at VMworld next month, Bitdefender wants to recruit another distie.

The vendor sees its move into virtualisation security as a key differentiator in a crowded market, with Trend Micro the only player currently dominating the sector. “They’ve existed in that market with no competition, and in a way that’s held them back,” reckons Barlow. “There’s been nothing to compare it with. But of course now they have, but the difference is this is the next generation.”

Bitdefender is confident of its play in the virtualisation space in no small part thanks to the presence of its Business Solutions Unit director, Rares Stefan, co-founder of security specialist Third Brigade – which was then acquired by Trend Micro – where he developed hypervisor-based network, VM security and security event correlation systems.

Barlow says despite a false start to its distributor recruitment efforts with an unnamed distributor running into “financial difficulties”, the vendor is now in discussion with several firms. “We do have a big opportunity now with all the announcements coming up on the business side to help us recruit the right partner,” he says.

Bitdefender is also talking directly to both security and virtualisation specialist VARs, meeting with almost 25 potential partners over the last three months.

Says Barlow: “Many already have an alternative security vendor in place, but the comments we’ve been getting when they’ve seen our management console [part of Bitdefender’s SMB line] is favourable compared to the competition.”

Meanwhile, as part of the push to raise its profile outside of Romania, the vendor this week invited journalists to its HQ in Bucharest where it also lifted the curtain on a major re-branding of its software.

The firm has chosen a mythical creature from Romanian folklore, the Dacian Dragon-Wolf, as a figurehead for the company (pictured). Half wolf, half dragon (as you might expect), the creature has come to stand for invincible defence, according to the vendor.

So what are the reasons for appointing a distributor in the first place?

Reasons usully include credit management, inventory and logistics skills, to leverage existing relationships, “attach” to an adjacent product or technology or a desire to maintain a vendor business that is as small and flexible as possible (by outsourcing everything except product development).

Other reasons are market driven; The speed of technology change, scale of margins and the ease in which software can be implemented and utilised (in most cases) means that WARMC (wide and rapid market coverage) is often the primary reason for appointing a distributor.

1. How is your business funded?

It is important, especially more recently, that distributors have the scale of “credit-worthiness” to take on a vendor and grow sales in line with expectations and commitments.

It is becoming more common for vendors to credit insure, and this sometimes limits the ability of a distributor to buy the quantities of products from the vendor that they might be capable of (or committed to) selling.

A plan needs to be in place then for what will happen as credit limits are exceeded, as nothing is more frustrating as a distributor, than outperforming your targets and then spending valuable management time finding what may prove to be expensive finance solutions to buying additional products from the vendor.

From a vendors point of view, their credit “risk” strategies need to be realistic, and their choice of the number of distribution partners and type of partners, in line with that strategy.

2. How is your business structured?

Is the distributor a privately-owned, stand-alone, pure-play, product-focussed distributor? Is it a publicly quoted, group company, selling products, services and training and also owning a reseller?

The different company motivations and ambitions can make a big difference to a vendors ability to motivate the channel.

For example…imagine appointing three specialists distributors to sell your software, who cover 90 percent of the addressable market between them. After six months of investment developing skills within the channel, distributor A decides that they need more sales of training that quarter in order to meet services targets that their organisation has committed to so that their share price is maintained.

In order to do this they run a quarterly incentive to sell your product at cost for the quarter if training is purchased at the same time. (You can imagine there are many variants of this type of incentive, structured to avoid any pricing commitments the distributor might have in place with you).

Distributors B and C continue to sell at standard rates and see their share and revenues plummet or their customers insist on a price reduction to match distributor A. When the quarter is over the resellers all have an expectation of the price that they can achieve on your product (distributor cost), some have switched distribution partners, and the distributor that cares least about your products legitimate sales development has the largest share of the market.

It won’t take long for this kind of activity to permanently damage your relationships in the channel as well as your sales, as distributors B and C decide to sell your competitors products instead, or baulk at investing in developing sales in the future for fear of the same thing happening again .

Vendors can avoid this through a combination of choosing the distribution partners whose structure actually suits their product sales ambitions, and through tight controls and motivational tools.

3. What is your company’s value proposition?

This question clearly needs to be supplemented by direct research, but if your product needs technical demonstrations and “proof of concept” installed in each project before a sale will result, then it is pointless appointing a distributor (regardless of their market share of the addressable market) if they have the best tele-marketing organisation and no technical pre-sales ability.

Conversely, if the product needs to reach a broad market very quickly, and users/resellers just need guiding through a price list or license scheme, then appointing a distributor with the most technically-skilled pre-sales resources is not going to help you meet your objectives.

Misaligned value propositions in channel partners is one of the biggest causes of frustration and poor performance in the channel.

4. What market do you address, and what share do you have?

It seems like an obvious question, and you should always ask (or better still research) this.

It is pointless appointing a distributor that has no existing position in your chosen market, except if they have the value proposition, incentives, skills and ambitions to attack your market from a standing start….and that will only work if you have the time to wait while they do this.

5. What similar products and services do you sell?

Do you want to appoint a distributor that already sells another similar product to yours?

Ironically this can either be a very good thing to do, or a disaster.

If the distributor has experience and skills and existing relationships where they can introduce your product, because it has been selling a similar product in that market for a while, then this can save a lot of time. It would make sense to ensure that the personnel in the distributor that manage your product are different from those that manage your competitors product, and that your distributor acts with the utmost integrity when inevitable conflicts arise.

This is a difficult situation to manage but can work well in the right circumstances with the right distributor.

Generally, however, selling another similar product is something that will cause an issue, and your decision to go with that distributor will be more based on your confidence that they will sell your product rather than your competitors.

So for example…if your competitors product is:

• better than yours
• has more marketing funds
• creates more margin for the channel participants
• is cheaper to the user
• or if they have the ability (through greater financial strength as a business) to discount their product heavily when needed

…then it is likely to result in poor sales or an apathetic partner, but if the reverse is true, then you can take advantage of this situation and appoint your competitors distributor and fast-track your sales.

6. What other territories do you operate in?

If you want to expand throughout Europe this can be an advantage, but be wary.

A distributor with the perfect market coverage, value-proposition and motivations in one country might own a distributor with a very different set of circumstances in another country, so approach each location as a new agreement with separate due diligence on that territory and which distributor you appoint.

Internet security vendor G Data Software is building on its recent expansion into the UK by signing on a new distributor. Koch Media, specialist disti of games, DVDs and software, will now be taking on the range of G Data products. The vendor already has an agreement in place with SecureDIS.

James Coombes is UK channel sales manager at the German firm. He says: “G Data already has a strong reputation in Europe and this latest partnership will drive growth within the UK. Like G Data, Koch Media have a strong focus on providing up-to-date technology and customer service, which is why G Data is the perfect match for this distributor.”

“G Data and Koch Media GmbH have been successfully working together in Europe for a number of years,” adds Joanna Kemp, Koch Media head of sales – Software and Consumer Electronics. “I’m extremely pleased that as a UK entity we are able to build upon this success and allow the UK to benefit from an already strong relationship with G Data. The relationship with G Data further increases Koch Media's offering and strength within the security market for retail, resellers and Independents.”

Alcatel-Lucent has signed a distribution deal with Incanix, aimed at targeting new resellers and increase end-user uptake of converged IP solutions in the UK and Ireland.

The agreement, says Alcatel-Lucent, builds upon a series of converged products and incentives it has launched the channel during the past twelve months in order to grow the company’s UK & Ireland market share.

Incanix will gain access to Alcatel-Lucent’s full portfolio of converged solutions (including VoIP, data, security and applications), including the vendor’s range of OmniStack and OmniSwitch LAN switches, as well as its enterprise security portfolio.

While offering a full portfolio of complementary ICT products, Incanix says it will not carry any competitive products to Alcatel-Lucent’s convergence portfolio. It has also set up a dedicated team to offer Alcatel-Lucent resellers assistance with both business development and pre- and post-sales technical support, as the partnership gets underway.

Incanix is a new company created by a group of channel and direct sales veterans. Its management team includes Wendy Askew, who has experience in UK & Ireland sales and distribution from her previous role in Cisco.

“Convergence uptake continues to grow, with many companies now looking to deploy converged technologies that will reduce communications costs and lower carbon footprints – a key focus for 2010 – while providing a competitive advantage as the recession subsides,” says Askew, sales director at Incanix. “Our partnership with Alcatel-Lucent will allow us to target resellers with an industry-leading end-to-end portfolio, enabling these partners to provide convergence offerings that deliver speedy ROI and meet end-user communications needs both now and in the future.”

Having evaluated a range of potential partners, Alcatel-Lucent says hose Incanix due to its internal convergence expertise and commitment to providing dedicated single-vendor distribution.

“During the past twelve months we’ve undertaken many initiatives to increase end-user awareness about the benefits of IP convergence, culminating in the Incanix distribution agreement, which is key to expanding our UK & Ireland coverage and reach – particularly in the small-to-medium-sized enterprise space, where there is massive growth opportunity,” explains Eamon Connaughton, head of distribution for Alcatel-Lucent UK & Ireland.

“We wanted a new partner that could augment our existing distribution activities and provide a dedicated Alcatel-Lucent focus – Incanix fits the bill perfectly in this respect. Its remit will be to reach new resellers, equip them with the tools they need to get started and reward them for their sales efforts, ultimately helping more businesses save money and make money through the deployment of converged ICT solutions.”

AMD (NYSE: AMD) is marking the one-year anniversary of its Fusion Partner Programme with the introduction of the AMD Fusion Partner Programme distributor track.

The vendor has also unveiled the AMD Rewards Programme, which creates added sales-based incentives for partners to drive channel sales growth.

“We’ve been putting energy into our channel programme to make your job easier,” Dirk Meyer, president and CEO of AMD told attendees at last week’s Canalys Channels Conference.

The distributor track covers partners that distribute all AMD products and segments, such as CPU, GPU, client and server and workstation systems. AMD says now they can receive incentives, benefits and support designed to help them provide more value to their partners. They will also get access to demand generation programmes, training and tools.

Meyer was, however, candid about the firm’s relationship with the channel thus far, stating “Frankly, we haven’t done a very good job so far at getting our message out on a global basis.”

Referring to last year’s spinoff of AMD’s fabrication plants where GlobalFoundries took responsibility for producing its processors, Meyer said: “A year into the transition I can say that the direction in which we’re heading is the clearly right one.”

Meyer went on take a jab at rival Intel’s expensive TV advertising campaigns: “Our research shows that TV advertising can create awareness... it’s very clear that TV advertising doesn’t create a desire to buy Intel. The brand of microprocessor is actually pretty low in terms of what people have in mind when they walk into a computer shop. We don’t think consumer-based advertising is a good investment in our company.

“For us it’s not the success of our brand that matters it’s the success of the marketplace of our customers’ brands; of HP, of Acer...”

French desktop and application virtualisation vendor Systancia has appointed specialist thin client and server based computing distributor Getech to distribute its software in the UK and Ireland.

Systancia recently opened a UK office, as well as launching its AppliDis Fusion 4 application and desktop virtualisation solution in December 2009. The firm says it selected Getech based on its base of channel partners in the thin client and server centric computing space.

According to industry analysts IDC, the market for desktop virtualisation is set to reach $4bn by 2011 from a base of around $2bn in 2009. Systancia has already achieved a strong customer base in the French financial, health, education and Government markets, and is looking to replicate the success in the UK and other European markets.

Andy Boyle, UK sales manager for Systancia comments, “Getech was a natural choice as distribution partner for our virtualisation solutions, as their complementary range of thin client desktop products means that they have existing established channel partner relationships, plus in-depth expertise in server-base computing, which will be a perfect fit for us. We will be working actively with Getech with a special focus on recruiting smaller and medium sized resellers who want to differentiate themselves from the large players and offer a competitive and compelling alternative to the market leaders.”

Adds Guy Watts, sales director at Getech: “We have seen a huge increase in the demand for thin client desktops over the past 12 months , this is as a result of not only widespread acceptance of the advantages to be gained from server virtualisation but the significant increase in functionality that thin clients in a virtual desktop environment now offer.

“Getech are regularly involved with our reseller partners in the latter stages of designing a virtual desktop solution so it is a logical decision for us to offer our partners an application and desktop solution that compliments the TCO savings of thin clients...We believe the combination of a cost effective virtualisation solution with low cost thin clients will provide our partners the products to capture a significant portion of the VDI market.”