Niche distributor Wick Hill has expanded its portfolio to offer security appliances and web servers by signing two new vendors.

Security appliance vendor Fortinet and secure web server provider Zeus Technology join Wick Hill's vendor line-up.

Fortinet provides ASIC-based multi-function security appliances with virtual private network, firewall, antivirus, intrusion detection and content filtering capabilities.

Jens Andreassen, Fortinet's managing director for Europe, Middle East and Africa, explained that Wick Hill's niche value-add skills complement the vendor's current distribution channel.

"We chose Wick Hill because it offers us capabilities that our current distributor, Ideal Hardware, cannot," he said.

"Specialist support is needed because some of the network environments our FortiGate products go into are very complex."

In partnership with Wick Hill the vendor has launched its 'More For Less' programme in an attempt to challenge NetScreen in the security appliance market.

According to Wick Hill, the campaign is designed "to acquire NetScreen resellers and resellers that have losing business to them".

The distributor is also bolstering its web server offerings through a deal with high-end web server vendor Zeus Technology.

The vendor, which traditionally sells direct into the internet service provider markets, now wants to sell to the enterprise space through Wick Hill.

The company claims that its web server infrastructures allow companies to install security patches at a lower cost.

John Paterson, chief executive at Zeus, explained that the high cost of installing security patches on Microsoft and Apache web servers puts the technology out of reach for many enterprises.

"Because it's so cheap to run and manage it is a good opportunity for resellers to offer customers quick returns on investment," he said.

"Wick Hill will only sign between 20 and 25 resellers because this is a very focused area."