Westcon ties down Sonicwall agreement

Value added distributor, WestconME, has been awarded the distribution rights for data protection vendor Sonicwall’s portfolio for the MEA region.

Under the agreement the VAD will take responsibility for distributing and promoting Sonicwall’s range of network security solutions across the Middle East. Westcon will now take charge of Sonicwall’s network security appliances, SSL VPN solutions, and email security products.

“The Middle East and Africa’s IT channel has been searching for cost-effective means to remotely manage, maintain and support the evolving IT security and networking needs of the SMB market,” explained Venu Menon, sales and marketing director at Westcon Middle East.

“We evaluated a number of vendors targeted at the SMB space and it was not hard to see the excellent functionality offered within the Sonicwall platform,” said Menon.

In addition to delivery and marketing of the products, Westcon has been tasked to add value and work closely with Sonicwall’s sales and partner development teams with a view to providing a high level of pre- and post-sales support. Furthermore the distributor has also signed on to offer technical support around the vendor’s products.Shahnawaz Sheikh, Sonicwall’s regional sales manager for MEA, claims that the partnership comes at the height of the organisation’s growth stage in the MEA region and is a highly strategic move.

“We are confident that Westcon’s strong regional presence and security distribution experience in the region — offering multiple sales and support offices and logistic facilities staffed with qualified professionals — will be a key player in our successful expansion efforts,” said Sheikh.

The inclusion of a major security partner to Westcon’s alliance list complements its work which includes distribution in the realms of convergence of voice, data and video applications, such as VoIP, and security for networking and virtual private networks. Sonicwall joins the likes of Avaya, Cisco, Juniper, Motorola and Nortel in the distributor’s portfolio which is provided to resellers, systems integrators and service providers across the Middle East.