James Maunder is set to go head to head with former employer e92plus after signing Celestix as the first vendor for his new venture, security distributor Itso IT.
According to Maunder, Itso will focus solely on the security appliance vendor, which is a key ally of e92plus.
To rub salt in the wound, former e92plus Celestix product manager Ian Hickling has agreed to help Itso on a ‘consultative’ basis.
Maunder, former commercial director at e92plus, told CRN: “It is unusual to run a distributor based on one vendor, but I believe in this model. Celestix needs that dedication and represents a great growth opportunity.”
Tim Ager, European sales director at Celestix, which also works with DNS Arrow, denied there would be any conflict with existing distributors.
“E92plus is a Websense distributor and DNS Arrow works with SurfControl, which are both deployed on our [Microsoft] ISA server. No one has ever attacked the Microsoft channel to sell our ISA server for its own functionality,” he said.
But Mukesh Gupta, managing director of e92plus, said: “The Celestix market is not ready for three distributors. Appointing a new distributor means it will just go after existing business. In distribution you are not adding value unless you sell multiple products.”
Maunder out as e92 director