Exclusive Networks partners with Fortinet in Ireland

Consolidation, cost optimisation, automated interoperability key to security provider's expansion plans

Voices

Pictured: Dave Park, Fortinet; Julian Keable, Exclusive Networks; Paul Donegan, Fortinet

In association with Exclusive Networks

Exclusive Networks and Fortinet are building on their 21 year global relationship with a new Irish partnership. 

Julian Keable, Exclusive Networks country manager, Ireland, says the deal is a natural extension of an already successful global partnership. “We’ve built up our business in line with the growth Fortinet has seen globally; we represent a significant percentage of their global turnover. The resources, capabilities, the skillset not only in distribution, but in terms of how we support the Fortinet business from a wider services point of view, is inherent in pretty much everything we do across every territory. Our services model is built around what Fortinet needs to scale the growth they’re expecting.”

The partnership with Exclusive Networks will allow Fortinet to bed down in the Irish market, and continue its expansion here, where it has seen significant growth in the past four years. 

That continued growth will stem from a number of areas, but Paul Donegan, country manager, Ireland, Fortinet says that key among them is being able to help organisations here to bridge that cyber security skills gap. That’s where the Exclusive Networks proposal stood out. 

“We have a massive skill shortage in Ireland in terms of that technical capability within organisations that operate in Ireland, and Exclusive were able bridge that gap, not only with our partners, but also with the support to enable the deployment and the management of the technologies that those end customers are consuming.”

Exclusive Networks will also be supporting Fortinet for their next phase of growth, not just with their existing partner base and technologies, but also broadening that out to the mid market and SMBs. They will also be helping Fortinet to take advantage of the move towards consolidation in the Irish market. 

“In the last couple of years consultancies like Deloitte, Gartner, IDC have said that consolidation, cost optimisation, and automated interoperability, are going to be key areas for business. And Ireland’s no different; in the last 12 months, over 40% of our engagements are with customers looking to consolidate the number of vendors they’re consuming, and looking at adding more automated interoperability within the technologies they’re deploying,” explains Paul. 

Fortinet enjoys a 42% market share of the firewall market in Ireland, but it’s investing in broadening this out to include its wider product set. This is another area where the partnership with Exclusive Networks will play a role, says Julian. 

“Our Fortinet Training Academy brings together the community of partners we service from distribution. This is where we support them with enablement and achieving their accreditations, which in turn puts them on an accelerated technical Fortinet partner roadmap. This is massively beneficial in terms of helping them understand Fortinet’s entire solution set and how they can then map that to the services they offer to their customers.

“We enhance this value add even further with our Exclusive Networks Payments solutions XSP, enabling our partners with a structured payments solution that further enhances their competitiveness and go to market. For us, as Fortinet’s largest global training provider, it’s about the evolution of distribution, which is about much more than good pricing, it’s also about the value add services that we deliver.”