SonicWall announced it had appointed Tristan Bateup as Country Manager for Ireland, building on the company’s long-established collaboration with distributors in the region as it continues to expand its presence and capabilities in the country. Tristan has over a decade of experience in the cyber security industry, including five years managing SonicWall partner business at long-time distributor Exertis.
From there, he joined SonicWall, where he served as Strategic Account Manager for the UK and Ireland until his recent appointment in February 2020. Throughout his career, Tristan has helped the IT channel community arm itself with the right technology and services to offer the highest level of protection — laying the groundwork for his new role, in which he is challenged to drive double-digit growth in the region.
Chronic skills shortage
Will Benton, Regional Director, Northern Europe at SonicWall, said: “Tristan’s experience and skills have already proved invaluable in establishing our presence in Ireland since his appointment. SonicWall places great importance in its partner relationships, and Tristan’s strong experience on both sides of the relationship contributes to bringing us even closer to our partner network in Ireland.”
The announcement comes after recent enhancements were made to SonicWall’s MSSP programme last April. The programme was designed to assist MSSPs in helping their customers bridge the cyber security business gap resulting from the expansion of threat vectors coupled with tightening budgets and the chronic skills shortage.
Enterprise cyber security solutions
SonicWall has evolved its Boundless security offering to cover the skills and budget gaps caused"
To address the needs of Ireland-based customers in the era of Boundless Cybersecurity, SonicWall will be consolidating its channel strategy in the region, responding to the rising demand for enterprise cyber security solutions in the growing Irish economy and the strong competitive market.
“Ireland is growing strongly, and that brings security concerns,” Bateup said. “Recently, Irish businesses have had to deal with increasingly insidious threats from cybercriminals while adjusting to a 100% remote workforce. SonicWall has evolved its Boundless security offering to cover the skills and budget gaps caused by just such a scenario. So, joining the team when today's Irish customers need hyper-distributed IT is the right move at the right time."
Sales engineering resources
SonicWall is also expanding its partner base in order to refine its focus in the Irish market and offer a wider range of solutions to customers. To this end, it is also strengthening its position by establishing additional resources such as dedicated sales engineering resources and field sales.
SonicWall, a 100% channel-focused company, has over 20,000 partners worldwide. Partners have the benefit of participating in the award-winning SecureFirst partner programme and SonicWall University, designed to educate partners while helping them grow and expand their business. With innovation as well as disruption accelerating across EMEA, it is more important than ever that extensive partner communities fully leverage the wide breadth of solutions businesses offer, from wireless, cloud and endpoint to remote access and more.
