SonicWALL expands partnership with Redington Gulf to cover MENA

Redington Gulf is expected to join the current SonicWALL distribution network to increase the company's reach in the region and meet climbing demand.

According to the terms of the agreement, Redington Gulf will distribute SonicWALL's entire range of security appliances, network security products, secure remote access, Web and e-mail security, continuous data protection, and policy and management solutions.

"The escalating instances of security bypass, data hacking and denial-of-service attacks are just a few reasons that have made securing the network a crucial task for businesses. In such a scenario, SonicWALL's network security appliances provide affordable, flexible, and integrated security solutions and services in order to root out security threats," said Raj Shankar, Director of Redington Gulf FZE. "Redington Gulf will work at enhancing SonicWALL's reach and awareness across the Middle East and Africa through its service network that covers more than 60 locations, including 12 owned service centres and 48 Redington Authorised Service Providers."

In June this year SonicWALL signed a distribution contract with Redington Gulf covering the Saudi Arabia market. However, to keep in line with its regional expansion plans, SonicWALL decided to expand Redington Gulf's scope. In the Middle East, Redington Gulf has a strong presence in 13 countries including the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Lebanon, Kuwait, Bahrain, and Qatar. In Africa, the company covers Ghana, Nigeria, Ethiopia, Kenya, Uganda, and Tanzania.

For SonicWALL customers, this agreement with Redington Gulf will increase support levels across all product ranges. Commenting on SonicWALL's support and services initiative in the region, Shahnawaz Sheikh, Regional Sales Manager, MEA said: "There are two different types of support available. The first option is to seek support from SonicWALL certified engineers, who are available with every SonicWALL Silver and Gold partner and covered by certified engineers at distributors for level-2 support. The second option is to avail 8x5 and 24x7 support, which overlaps with option 1 but the enhancements are that customers get 8x5 or 24x7 Toll Free support answered directly by SonicWALL's support engineers."

Revenue from global IT security market appliances and software grew roughly by 2% between the periods from the fourth quarter of 2005 to the first quarter of the current year. IT security industry revenues crossed $1.5 billion during the first quarter of 2006. The global IT security market is divided into product categories, with integrated security appliances and software contributing 75%, followed by intrusion protection and detection systems which constitute roughly about 15% and the remaining 10% is attributed to gateway anti-virus.

According to Infonetics Research, the quarterly worldwide network security appliances and software revenue is expected to increase 21% in Q3 2006 compared to the same quarter a year ago. Annual revenue is forecast to grow to $6 billion in 2008. According to the research, North America accounted for 45% of network security appliances and software revenue, according to the research, followed by EMEA at 29% and Asia Pacific at 21%.

Meanwhile, market research agency RNCOS' (Research & Consultancy Outsourcing Services) recent study titled "IT Security Market Worldwide (2006-2007)" suggests that the global network security appliance and software market sales were up by 15%, reaching $4.3 billion during 2005. However, in the wake of increased information threats and rising instances of intrusion and hacking, the research agency expects the worldwide market for network security appliance and software to grow to $6 billion by 2009.