MIDDLE EAST
REGIONAL CHANNELS
MID DLE EAST
MINDWARE AND BARRACUDA EXTEND DISTRIBUTION AGREEMENT TO AFRICA
Toni Azzi , General Manager – Qatar , North Africa & Levant , Mindware
Mindware , one of the leading value-added distributors ( VADs ) in the Middle East and Africa , has announced that it has signed an agreement with Barracuda , a global provider of cloud-enabled security solutions , to offer the entire suite of the vendor ’ s security products to enterprises across North , West and Central Africa . The new deal builds on the existing partnership between the two companies that extends to the Gulf and Levant countries , which saw the distributor successfully grow Barracuda ’ s regional business and market share .
Toni Azzi , General Manager – Qatar , North Africa and Levant , Mindware said : “ The COVID-19 pandemic has caused economic disruption and the emergence of remote working as a trend , that is likely to continue in the future . New research from Barracuda shows that the shift to remote work has intensified data protection challenges . 52 % of IT decision makers say their organisation has experienced a ransomware attack , which is an alarming statistic . It is therefore intuitive that security should be a top priority for enterprises as part of their overall Digital Transformation plans .”
Azzi added that : “ Barracuda is an established leader in enterprise email security and has a vast array of innovative security solutions spanning networks , data and applications . Adding the vendor to our portfolio , complements and strengthens our current security offerings . The solutions provide a strong value proposition to our channel partners and their customers looking to implement best-of-breed , enterprise-grade , cloud-ready security technologies . We are looking to replicate the same level of success in Africa that we have been able to achieve for the vendor in the Gulf and Levant region .”
Mindware will focus on the entire suite of Barracuda business products , with emphasis on increasing regional adoption of the company ’ s email security solutions including Email Security Gateway and Cloud-to-Cloud Backup . The company was recently named a Leader in The Forrester Wave : Enterprise Email Security , Q2 , 2021 .
With the hybrid workplace trend , Mindware said it sees huge potential for Barracuda CloudGen WAN , a secure SD-WAN service built natively on Microsoft Azure . It is a single , unified solution that makes it very simple for enterprises to ensure highly secure , seamless connectivity to all their locations and all their cloud-based resources and applications . The distributor added that it will also focus efforts on promoting Barracuda CloudGen Firewall , a solution that goes beyond next-generation firewalls and gives companies comprehensive protection for onpremises and multi-cloud deployment .
Mindware stated that it has attained all the required certifications to offer professional services and training on behalf of Barracuda . Both the vendor and distributor will work jointly to rollout tailor-made channel enablement plans that will help reseller partners to optimally position different technologies taking into account the particular verticals or customer segments that they specialise in .
“ We have shared a long standing relationship with Mindware and are excited to extend this partnership to Africa , which is a key growth market for Barracuda . The distributor with its strong security practice , high level of technical expertise , expansive partner network and unparalleled knowledge of the region , will be a key ally for our company . We believe we are now well placed to serve the unique requirements of regional customers and in doing so , increase our market share ,” concludes Chris Ross , SVP International Sales , Barracuda . •
Chris Ross , SVP Sales , International at Barracuda
INTELLIGENT TECH CHANNELS Issue 42 29