NetXactics brings NETASQ UTM solutions to sub-Saharan Africa

Addressing the growing requirement for companies to consolidate multiple security technologies, NetXactics has re-established its market identity and will distribute and support the full range of NETASQ Unified Threat Management (UTM) solutions in sub-Saharan Africa.

“We believe the time is right for NetXactics to move forward with a broader range of security solution sets, the first of which is NETASQ, a leading European network security vendor best known for UTM security appliances,” says Brett Myroff, CEO of NetXactics.

“NETASQ is a visionary in the UTM space, offering high levels of network security to customers ranging from SMEs to large private and public organisations, and boasting almost 80 000 installations worldwide,” he adds.

UTM solutions have evolved to address the fundamental need of IT managers to maximise both security and its return on investment. “The proven answer to this challenge is to consolidate multiple technologies in a single all-in-one solution,” says Myroff.

Such consolidation can potentially reduce both capital as well as operating expenses, as the number of devices and their associated management overhead are reduced. However, unless certain factors are taken into consideration, such solutions may also represent an unacceptable compromise.

According to IDC, more than 40% of security breaches arise from errors in firewall configuration, and so with the additional functions of UTM, this problem may be compounded.

“All too many UTM solutions, while performing acceptably as firewalls, struggle to maintain adequate performance when other critical protection such as intrusion prevention or anti-virus is enabled. As network traffic increases to meet the growing demands of the business, so the performance of these solutions degrades further and IT managers resort to disabling essential layers of security. Another area where many traditional solutions currently fall short is that of control.

“NETASQ ensures critical levels of protection are enabled by default, while the product architecture delivers this protection without compromising performance, security or control. By hiding unnecessary complexity, the chances of leaving a security hole through misconfiguration are drastically reduced and the resulting level of protection increased,” Myroff says.

"NETASQ is rated as a visionary in the UTM Gartner Magic Quadrant. Our aim is to establish partnerships with best-in-class distributors to ensure high levels of service in each of the markets we operate in, and increase our delivery capability across the globe," says Dominique Meurisse, executive VP Sales of NETASQ. “We are proud to partner with NetXactics for distribution in sub-Saharan Africa.”

The full range of NETASQ UTM solutions is currently available through NetXactics' reseller channel.