Meru appoints Sphinx

Wireless LAN vendor adds security specialist to distribution stable

Written by Sam Trendall

CRN, 07 Feb 2008

Wireless LAN vendor Meru Networks has announced a partnership with IT distributor Sphinx.

As part of the deal, Sphinx will now offer a training centre for Meru products which will allow resellers to train their staff and also to resell that training to end users.

Meru's current distributors in the UK are 802 Global and Siracom. Dave Kelly, vice president of Meru EMEA, claimed that he wanted to recruit over 50 new partners in the coming year. He also indicated that Meru had gone from having the 19th largest worldwide market share of WLAN vendors, to having the 4th largest, behind Cisco, Aruba and Motorola.

Meru have also announced that Mark Howell has been appointed as regional sales manager for the UK and Ireland. Howell previously worked for Juniper.

Kelly said: "Sphinx has a portfolio of products that I see as complementary; it is a very good fit. I think Meru can offer Sphinx a portfolio of products that it does not have today and we can also help them attract new customers.”

Kelly maintained that Meru's current distribution partners had no cause for concern. He said: "Both 802 and Siracom will continue to work with us and they have a loyal set of partners. This partnership will add to our overall coverage in the market, which will benefit Meru and, consequently, all our existing partners. I am building a good channel model with two tiers.

"This partnership establishes Meru in the next stage of growth. Partners are coming to us from wireless, networking, voice, security – I see partners being attracted to us from a variety of markets."

Mark Hatton, Sphinx managing director, said: "Two things attracted us to Meru. Firstly, the uniqueness of its technology, which is much easier to deploy and implement than some others.

"Secondly, we knew Dave Kelly from when he was at Cisco and Mark Howell from when he was at Juniper. We knew they ran a channel business in the right manner. I do think, for these reasons, that they are equipped to compete with larger vendors."

He added: "We can give Meru more access to the market place. We have 1,500 reseller partners so, through us, it has a tried and tested route to market. We can potentially help them accelerate into the UK market."