Westcon-Comstor adds security depth with Okta

Westcon-Comstor has continued to add more depth to its Next Generation Solutions (NGS) initiative with the signing of Okta.

The distributor set up NGS in the summer of 2020, with the aim of pulling together the parts needed to help customers make a secure path through digital transformation, focusing on zero-trust access, IoT/OT security, next-generation SOC and secure cloud/DevOps.

Over the past 18 months, the distie has continued to add depth around those areas, including the signing off zero-trust player Zscaler last autumn, and the Okta relationship also adds more depth on the security front.

Okta’s secure identity offering will be added into the NGS portfolio and provide partners with another zero-trust option for customers.

“Identity-based attacks can be difficult for organisations to detect and prevent, due to their focus on exploiting individual employee behaviour and credentials, who may not be well versed in spotting cyber security threats,” said Daniel Hurel, vice-president of Westcon’s Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) cyber security and next-generation solutions.

“As organisations continue to operate over multiple devices and in cloud environments to support remote working, the network perimeter has vastly increased, which creates the difficult task to have visibility on all remote users.

“Bringing this service into Westcon-Comstor’s security portfolio gives our partners the tools they need to reduce the attacks on their customer’s employees and, importantly, limit any disruption to user experience,” he added.

For Giovanni Natalino, head of channels and alliances EMEA at Okta, the distribution appointment was enhanced by some of the other vendors already signed up in the NGS portfolio.

“As they leverage our top technologies such as Zscaler, Palo Alto Networks, Proofpoint and others, we are excited to be partnering with them. It makes Westcon the natural fit for us,” he said.

Zscaler held its first EMEA partner summit earlier this week and handed out a special partner enablement award to Westcon for the distributor’s creation of a virtual lab environment, which helped partners and their customers demonstrate how the technology would work with fellow vendor offerings, including Okta.

“The security service edge [SSE] approach to the identity-based zero trust model for granular, secure access to any asset requires Zscaler and its partners to show prospects the capabilities of the new security model for the holistic transformation of a digital business model,” said Kadir Erol, EMEA director channel and alliances at Zscaler.