Credit: McAfee
Duo has been appointed as the sole distributor of McAfee in New Zealand, with the security specialists striking a deal following a four-party review process lasting six months.
Reseller News can confirm that the Wellington-based value-added distributor will take charge of the tech giant’s portfolio nationwide, spanning anti-virus and cyber security software.
Effectively immediately, results of the distribution review highlighted Duo’s “standout reputation” for customer service and influence in the local market, as the multi-billion dollar vendor leverages one of the leading security distributors in New Zealand.
“This is a fantastic achievement for Duo and we’re excited to partner with McAfee,” Duo co-founder and director, Kendra Ross, said.
“Duo is committed to providing great products and services in the cyber security market and with the support of McAfee we will continue to do so across New Zealand.”
Through supplying security, storage and memory solutions in the Kiwi market, Duo continues to expand its reach at a national level, following the opening of an Auckland office in 2016.
Currently, the distributor provides solutions and offerings across a range of vendor portfolios, including Adallom; AlienVault; Apricorn; Arbor Networks; Carbon Black; Check Point; Datalocker; HP Enterprise Security; PernixData; ProofPoint; SimplePlus and Sumo Logic.
“We are delighted to partner with Duo,” McAfee managing director A/NZ, Gary Denman, added.
“We know that the security landscape changes everyday and our customers and partners require deeper expertise and guidance to help address the changing environment. We are confident our customers and partners will gain deeper value through our new partnership with Duo.”
The distribution deal comes at a time when the new-look McAfee is making security vendors nervous.
As reported first by Reseller News, as competition within the security market intensifies, channel partners are rallying around a new, edgier McAfee brand.
Fresh from spinning off a majority ownership of its Intel Security Group (ISG) business unit to private investment firm TPG, an independent company has been created using the group’s historical name.
“The new McAfee is moving more quickly to go to market with a fresh set of solution suites for select areas, such as multifaceted endpoint security,” Technology Business Research principal analyst, Jane Wright, told Reseller News at the time.
“With these suites, McAfee will maintain its competitive position against key rival Symantec, which is undergoing transformation with its acquisition of Blue Coat Systems and its broad security portfolio.”
Additionally, Wright said McAfee will be better‐equipped to compete against other established competitors, such as IBM, Trend Micro, Sophos and Digital Guardian, and to block inroads by emerging vendors, such as Cylance, Crowdstrike and SentinelOne.
And it’s an approach well-timed for both vendor and distributor in New Zealand, as customer demands change across the country.
Today, Kiwi businesses are going digital, but many are struggling to cope with the consequences a digital business model is having on cyber security risk profiles.
In total, 28 per cent of local businesses faced a cyber attack last year, with recent research by PwC indicating that the number in New Zealand is set to rise further in 2017.
“Just a few years ago, many customers’ security installations consisted of hundreds of point products from dozens of vendors,” Wright explained.
“These cumbersome deployments evolved because large, mature vendors such as McAfee, under Intel’s ownership, Symantec and IBM delivered product after product to fill gaps in their security portfolios, while well‐ funded start-ups released products that did only one thing but did it very well.”
Yet during the past two years, Wright told Reseller News that customer sentiment changed, with end-users seeking "more comprehensive suites" as hackers become more sophisticated and attacks more frequent.
“Ultimately, customers will satisfy the majority of their security requirements with a handful of vendors, favouring those that offer a single platform with flexibility to attach and scale many highly effective, although not necessarily best‐of‐breed, technologies,” Wright said.
“McAfee is moving in the right direction by focusing all its development and sales resources around four solution sets, which it has named: dynamic endpoint, intelligent security operations, data centre and cloud defence, and pervasive data protection.”
