Sophos expands SME reach

Anti-virus and data protection firm Sophos is expanding its SME reach following a recently inked deal with North American distributor D&H Distributing, according to CRN.

The partnership will give UK-based Sophos access to D&H's channel and partner network, which incorporates more than 25 000 SME resellers.

Steven Hale, VP of global channels for Sophos, says the agreement represents the company's first entrance into a broad tier two relationship in North America and a concerted push into the SME market.

“Today's small businesses are often under-prepared to keep up with the changing security landscape and the increasing list of compliance mandates,” says Hale, reports Channelpro.

Its new relationship with Sophos, the distributor says, will provide value-added resellers with the “full-featured products” necessary to equip SMEs.

D&H's resellers have the option of joining the Sophos Global Partner Programme, which gives them access to the Sophos Partner Portal, a dedicated Sophos channel manager, the use of not for resale software for demonstration and training purposes, and sales and engineering support from Sophos to help them close deals, says Search Security Channel.

The Sophos Partner Portal provides online product training for Sophos' threat management and data protection software products.

With this announcement, Sophos will add its product and marketing information to the D&H Web site.

The announcement was made just days after Sophos was publicly criticised during a presentation at Black Hat 2011 for flaws in its security products.