Vendor returns to target resellers after retreating to US from knock-back in Europe

Email security vendor Proofpoint has leapt back into EMEA 18 months after cut-throat conditions forced it to retreat to its native US.

The vendor is hoping to recruit 20 resellers over the next quarter after enlisting former CipherTrust executives David Stanley and Oliver Carter to head its EMEA team. The firm now employs five staff in the UK, two in France and plans to add a further two in Germany.

Stanley, who is EMEA vice president, said: “We expanded into Europe at a time when the market was very competitive and as a result retrenched back to the US.

“We are still doing inbound and outbound email security and encryption, but we have also developed a virtual appliance for VMware. With the market changes it was the right time.”

Carter, who is director of channel said: “We would not rule out appointing a distributor, but our focus is to attract a solid core of partners and work closely with them.”

Proofpoint is targeting resellers of Postini, CipherTrust and IronPort, which were recently acquired by vendors Google, Secure Computing and Cisco, respectively.

Virtualisation resellers looking to expand into security are also high on Proofpoint’s wish-list, with VMware partner AN4 Group one of eight new resellers signed up this quarter.

Kristian Connor, sales director at AN4, said: “Postini’s purchase by Google opens up the market for another player to come forward. Proofpoint is dedicated to messaging solutions, which enables it to be more focused than those vendors which have fingers in many pies.”