John Walters - Group CEO, NEXTGEN
NEXTGEN Distribution has launched an Enterprise Security Practice, which will be built around the Micro Focus security portfolio.
NEXTGEN was already the only master distributor in Australia and New Zealand of both Micro Focus and the HPE software business. The new practice is the result of the completion of the spin-merger of the companies in September 2017, which led to a new agreement signed between the distributor and the vendor.
In September 2017, Micro Focus Asia Pacific and Japan president, Stephen McNulty, told ARN the security portfolio from HPE is different and complementary to Micro Focus’ own palette of offerings.
The distributor revealed it will be “selectively” adding security vendors to its portfolio of enterprise software and infrastructure.
To head up the new practice, NEXTGEN has hired former Polycom and Symantec exec, Paul Lancaster, as its new national security director. Lancaster was most recently director, pre-sales systems engineering for Polycom in Australia and New Zealand.
Lancaster has more than 30 years of experience in the industry having also worked for the likes of Epson, Veritas, Exablox and Symantec, where he spent eight years and acquired part of his security background.
“We have been investigating the establishment of a security practice within NEXTGEN for some time but to add true value we needed to have the right leader, skill-set and quality enterprise class vendor offerings,” NEXTGEN Group CEO, John Walters, said.
Walters said the company is actively researching other viable security solutions and will soon be announcing new vendor partnerships.
Lancaster joined NEXTGEN in September 2017 and has focused on getting across the Micro Focus security portfolio.
“He also attended the global launch of the new Micro Focus in November and has been running a number of technical sessions for Micros Focus partners across their security portfolio and also doing a lot of research on how to build our security portfolio and what vendors and services we should be looking at engaging in here,” Walters told ARN.
According to Lancaster, the expansion of NEXTGEN’s security portfolio will create opportunities for channel partners to deliver advanced security solutions to their end users.
“The Micro Focus and HPE Software merge has presented NEXTGEN with an excellent opportunity to deliver an enterprise security portfolio for partners to take to market,” Lancaster said.
“The Micro Focus enterprise security solutions were developed specifically for business segments aligned to operations, applications, authentication and all formats of data security.
"This enterprise portfolio, along with some new and exciting technologies and services NEXTGEN will be adding over the next few months, will provide the A/NZ channel a unique opportunity to expand their security offerings,” he added.
