Data#3 has responded to the sharp increase in security concerns among customers by launching a new practice.
The Brisbane-headquartered IT company's new security arm will be headed up by Richard Dornhart, who previously ran Data#3's Symantec practice. Before joining Data#3 in 2013, Dornhart worked at Symantec and Palo Alto Networks.
Data#3 chief executive Laurence Baynham said creating the new division was primarily driven by customer demand: in Data#3's latest customer survey, security leapt to top spot in terms of priorities, up from sixth the year before.
"What we are also seeing is the complexity of hybrid environments – whether public, private or in our own cloud – has increased requirement for security," said Baynham.
Hybrid IT has been a central message for Data#3 - it was the main theme of the company's Juice IT conference in 2014.
Symantec is a foundation vendor for the new division, as is Cisco.
At its global partner summit in Montreal, Cisco told attending partners – which included Data#3 – to focus on security. Data#3 chief executive Laurence Baynham told CRN that Cisco's strategy was "one of the factors for making this investment".
The move to position the practice around security – rather than any one vendor – goes to an outcome-based selling approach, something resellers are finding increasingly important as technology spend moves out of the IT department and into the boardroom.
Baynham said the new division would be "business focused", and leans on the consultancy skills that Data#3 acquired through its 2014 buyout of Business Aspect.
The news comes as Data#3 also predicts a solid result after last year's less-than-stellar financial performance. The company is forecasting growth in net profit after tax (NPAT) of 35-45 percent, to hit the $11 million mark.
In the 2014 fiscal year, Data#3 generated sales of $833.6 million – its highest-ever revenues – but NPAT fell to just $7.5 million, a decline of 38 percent.
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