Opswat continues to invest in UK channel growth

It has been a few weeks since Opswat cut the ribbon on a London office that has been designed to offer partners a space to demo resources and to act as a base to support channel growth.

The security player has been growing in the UK since arriving a decade ago, and it is keen to increase the investment in the channel as it looks for similar results to those it is on track to deliver this year in 2026. The decision late last month to open a briefing centre and cyber security lab in London is part of the firm’s commitment to the UK market.

“Internationally, we have always been like 90% channel driven, and now, because we are bigger, we have more resources to invest in channel,” said Benny Czarny, founder and CEO of Opswat. “Everything about channel is about enabling the channel profitability.

“So, to understand how they can get the recurring margins, they need to operate their business. We’re all about investing locally. We understand that UK channel partners are very different than German channel partners and different than other channel partners.”

James  Neilson, , senior vice-president for international business, said the security player was growing strongly in the UK and increasing the size of its channel base. The firm operates a two-distributor strategy, with Arrow and Distology the UK partners, to support partners. It is also adding staff to its internal channel team next year to support its own partner activities.

He added that growth with the channel came from identifying the right relationships, and from those that had the vertical market expertise mapped onto its target customer base: “We are largely a high-end play. So, we’re defence, intelligence, we’re finance and insurance, regulated manufacturing, industrial and nuclear plants, power grids, etc. We’re not a volume mid-market player. The volume is about trying to understand who’s in each of our key accounts and who’s operating there.”

 Neilson said it was working with GSIs and with smaller partners that were focused on specific markets and had established a strong reputation: “You go into any of the big banks, there’s a whole list of partners, and now we want to be talking to two or three partners, understanding who can help us in the different areas that we can sell to in … defence, intelligence [and so on]. There’s literally tens, if not dozens, of partners that we need to be dealing with to service that community properly.”

Opswat’s London office has lab facilities which can be used by partners keen to show their customers how the technology can react to a breach.

“We’re in the field, supporting our channel partners with the customer … transacting through channel partners, letting channel partners lead where it’s appropriate, and not having that mature triangulation within customers,” said Czarny.

“It’s not like we’re another antivirus or firewall company. We have clear distinguishing technology that sets channel partners apart. With complex IT, customers want to see the end user vendor and to build a relationship with them, and we do that in conjunction with our channel partners,” he added.