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Palo Alto hands Gold Partner status to NEC NZ

3 July 2017

NEC New Zealand has been recognised as a Palo Alto Networks NextWave Gold Partner, with the local practice achieving the status following increased investment in smart cities and public safety.

Providing partners with pre-sales, sales and post-sales capabilities, the new status will offer the business access to deeper levels of technical expertise across the vendor’s next-generation security platform.

“We’re renowned in New Zealand for our work in telecommunications, but we’re lifting the covers off emerging practices, including cyber security,” NEC New Zealand director of sales and marketing David Tse said.

“So it’s fantastic to see our investment in security engineering pay quick dividends with our elevation to Gold status in the Palo Alto Networks NextWave Channel Partner program.”

Across New Zealand, Tse said the battle against cyber criminal activity had not progressed as many hoped.

“Like drugs in sport, the bad guys always seem to be one or two steps ahead,” he added. “For all the technology and progress, already in 2017 we’ve witnessed the largest and fastest growing malware in history – the WannaCry ransom attack.”

To combat the growing threats both locally and globally, Tse said NEC is leveraging Palo Alto Network’s Next-Generation Security Platform, designed to re-posture security formations automatically.

“That’s the great thing about best-of-breed security – it outflanks the bad guys with a brain and machine learning far beyond the comprehension of most humans,” Tse added.

Headquartered locally in Wellington, the technology solutions provider specialises in smart city, biometric and network products and services, targeting government and enterprise markets in New Zealand.

“At Palo Alto Networks, our NextWave partners are valued and extended members of our global sales team,” Palo Alto Networks director of channels A/NZ Stephen Milthorpe added.

As a NextWave Gold Partner, NEC NZ has access to the technology, tools, and training and resources to help our mutual customers prevent successful cyber attacks.”

Palo Alto Networks is distributed across the country by Westcon-Comstor, following the localising of a global agreement in November 2014.

“We are always focused on supporting our partners in finding programs that are innovative to maximise differentiation and ultimately build a sustainable security practice,” Westcon-Comstor New Zealand managing director Dave Rosenberg added.

“We are really pleased to see NEC elevated to Gold Partner Status in the Palo Alto Networks NextWave Program, a result of continued investment and focus. We look forward to working further with the local NEC team.”

About NEC Corporation
NEC Corporation is a leader in the integration of IT and network technologies that benefit businesses and people around the world. By providing a combination of products and solutions that cross utilize the company’s experience and global resources, NEC’s advanced technologies meet the complex and ever-changing needs of its customers. NEC brings more than 100 years of expertise in technological innovation to empower people, businesses and society. For more information, visit NEC at https://www.nec.com.

Based on its Mid-term Management Plan 2015, the NEC Group globally provides “Solutions for Society” that promote the safety, security, efficiency and equality of society. Under the company’s corporate message of “Orchestrating a brighter world,” NEC aims to help solve a wide range of challenging issues and to create new social value for the changing world of tomorrow. For more information, please visit
https://www.nec.com/en/global/about/solutionsforsociety/message.html.

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