Cyber exposure solutions vendor, Tenable has appointed Arrow Electronics as its regional value-added distributor. This is part of its global approach of appointing select value added distributors to manage multiple countries, rather than increasing the number of its value-added distributors. Globally, Tenable also engages with Ingram Micro and Westcon, in addition to Arrow Electronics.
Maher Jadallah, Regional Director Middle East for Tenable, explains that the recent tie up with Arrow Electronics in the region now makes it a pan-EMEA value added distributor. Having one distributor across the region, reduces the number of transactions and the scope of training required to mobilize value added distributors. It also helps in execution of a strategy.
“This will give us and them a focus. We put one strategy and we execute that one strategy with that one distributor. It saves time for go to market, and the go to market strategy is better,” Jadallah explains.
In the region, other than Tenable, Arrow Electronics’ security vendor portfolio also includes RSA, Checkpoint, Forcepoint, Trend Micro, Deep Secure, McAfee, IXIA, Thales, Dell EMC. Bringing in Tenable helps Arrow Electronics to increase the size of its portfolio.
“We are known as a security distributor and we represent a lot of security vendors. Customers come to us with pain points, and it is important for us to have many products to suggest to customers which products can fit to kill their pain points. This is one of the products, which we believe will help us in completing our portfolio to provide better support to our customers,” elaborates Vimal Kocher, Managing Director Middle East region, Enterprise Computing Solutions Business, Arrow Electronics.
With regard to whether the market is ready for cyber exposure solutions from Tenable, Jadallah feels bullish. “I see how progressed the market is – today is better than yesterday, and it is right on time. The Middle East market cares about cybersecurity regardless of the customer industry,” Jadallah points out.
Tenable solutions also work well for channel partners adopting managed security services and security operations centre services. “You cannot do an MSSP or SOC partnership without a vulnerability management solution,” adds Jadallah.
On channel partner enablement for Tenable solutions, Arrow Electronics is already active, according to Kocher. “We are already enabling channel partners who are interested. Some are already handling it and are active. We are having regular meetings with the Tenable channel team to understand their focus,” says Kocher.
Arrow will also engage with Tenable tier-one channel partners. Such partners typically deal with multi-vendor solutions, in which Tenable is part of a complementing stack of cyber security solution vendors. “We have multiple tier-one partners in each country and we expect those partners to work on Tenable and other complementing technologies. Since the Tenable deal size is not as large as others, we need arrow to align with tier-one partners,” says Jadallah.
Tenable is built on innovation and started with Nessus and now Tenable.io. Tenable.io, eliminates blind spots using visibility into traditional and modern assets, such as cloud, mobile devices, containers and web applications. The Tenable.io platform offers purpose-built applications that solve security challenges, such as vulnerability management, container security and web application scanning.
Tenable has also extended its vulnerability management into industrial environments with a new product, Industrial Security from Tenable, which provides reliable asset discovery and vulnerability detection purpose-built for industrial control systems and supervisory control and data acquisition systems.
Partner programme
In the Middle East, Tenable operates in a two-tier channel model that rewards partners for their investments with various medallion levels. The Tenable Assure partner program offers financial rewards to partners who build competency and sales of Tenable solutions. A partner’s investment is protected with deal registration and training requirements, including sales and technical certifications.
Partners can build a Tenable practice, cross-sell Tenable integrations with other security vendors and leverage Tenable to build their service business. Value Added Distributors assist in recruiting and enabling the partner community which results in market entry and growth in this digitally-transformed market.
Partners are required to have an established security practice with an existing client base. They must achieve all relevant certifications after undergoing a training program that ensures partners are prepared to position, sell and support Tenable solutions. Approved Tenable Assure partners work closely to help customers understand, manage and reduce their cyber risk.
With the help of value added distributors, Tenable is assembling a network of partners that have security solutions to offer the market. Tenable channel partners provide high-value services to address customers’ data security and regulatory compliance concerns.
In the Middle East region, Arrow Electronics has teams of pre-sales and post-sales engineers which enables Arrow Electronics to support the entire technology and business transformation cycle involving vendors, solutions partners, and customers.
Arrow Electronics has an in-house Lab and datacentre where Arrow Electronics experts can provide consultative advices to the customers, partners before the purchasing process. Furthermore, at the Proof of Concept Solution Center, Arrow Electronics is able to showcase technologies, execute proof of concepts and perform demonstrations to partners and potential customers.