News

Westcon Group Introduces World-Class Security Solutions to Italian Reseller Market through Westcon Security

TARRYTOWN, NY, February 20, 2008 - Westcon Group, Inc., the leading specialty distributor in networking, convergence, security and mobility, announced that it has launched Westcon Security in Italy. Westcon Security is the distributor’s dedicated security-focused business practice, which provides best-in-class security solutions to its multi-national reseller base.

Through Westcon Security, Italian resellers can access the latest security solutions from leading vendors such as Juniper, SonicWALL, Blue Coat, F5 and many others. Additionally, Westcon Group’s SecurityPoint program is now available to all its Italian resellers. SecurityPoint combines targeted selling tools, product information and market analysis to help resellers become more successful in the security market.

According to research firm Gartner, Inc., "Security software revenue in Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA) … will grow at a compound annual rate (CAGR) of 9.6 per cent from 2006 through 2011 and reach €3.5 billion by 2011.”*

“We are pleased to introduce Westcon Security to the Italian reseller market,” said Duncan Potter, chief marketing officer of Westcon Group, Inc. “As technologies like unified communications, convergence and mobility become more sophisticated, security threats are increasing—not diminishing. Westcon Security—through its multi-national resources—has the expertise and the program infrastructure in place to help resellers be more effective in selling even the most complex security solutions.”

Through Westcon Security, resellers can access a dedicated product management team, pre and post-sales support as well as online training and consultancy. Details of each of these offerings are on the SecurityPoint site, at http://it.securitypoint.westcon.com.

“Westcon Security brings many years of expertise to the Italian reseller market,” commented Davide Carlesi, territory manager of Italy, Greece, Cyprus and Malta, Blue Coat Systems. “We are very pleased to have a distributor in Italy who understands not just security, but also the rapidly advancing technical context in which security solutions now play. We look forward to working with Westcon to bring greater opportunity to Italian resellers.”

Massimo Bruni, CEO of Advanced Telecom Systems S.p.A., an Italian-based reseller, added: “There is a clear need in Italy for high value security solutions—especially those that center on emerging technologies like unified communications.  Westcon brings both the depth of security experience and the knowledge of emerging technologies—therefore will be in a very good position to navigate Italian resellers towards greater profitability.”

^{_{*Gartner, Inc. press release: “Gartner Says EMEA Security Software Revenue Will Reach €2.4 Billion in 2007,” September 12, 2007}}

About Westcon Group
Westcon Group, Inc. is the leading specialty distributor in networking, convergence, security and mobility for leading technology vendors, including Cisco, Nortel, Avaya and Polycom. Through its Westcon and Comstor business practices, Westcon Group sells products and services to resellers, systems integrators and service providers. Westcon Group has particular expertise in the convergence of voice, data and video applications and technologies, including voice-over Internet protocol, or VoIP, security for networking and communications systems, remote access, Internet and e-business, virtual private networks, videoconferencing and wireless connectivity. For more information, visit http://www.westcongroup.com/.


Contact:    
Jeffrey Touzeau                
Westcon Group, Inc.            
(914) 829-7388            
jtouzeau@westcongroup.com