Ingram Micro inks distie agreement with AirBridge Networks across NZ and Pacific

New distribution deal gives Ingram Micro partners access to a slew of ARNI products.

Ingram Micro has signed a new distribution agreement in New Zealand with connectivity and network resilience specialist AirBridge Networks.

This new deal expands the solutions available to partners supporting organisations that require secure communications, business continuity and reliable connectivity in remote, regional and mission-critical environments.

This new deal will see AirBridge extended across New Zealand, the Pacific Islands, Papua New Guinea and French Polynesia.

The agreement will give Ingram Micro partners in the region with access to AirBridge's ARNI products.

Brook Gyde, general manager, advanced solutions and cloud, Ingram Micro told CRN Australia they saw a “clear opportunity” to strengthen the way their partners can help customers address connectivity as part of their broader resilience and cybersecurity strategy.

“AirBridge's ARNI products are particularly complementary to the ecosystem we have built around Fortinet,” he said.

“Fortinet is already a significant networking and security platform for many of our partners and their customers, so there is real value in introducing a solution that can integrate into those environments and extend secure connectivity to locations where conventional infrastructure may not be available or reliable.

He added, “For us, it was less about adding another networking vendor and more about giving partners another practical way to solve increasingly important customer challenges.”

According to Gyde, the biggest difference of having this deal with AirBridge is the ability to bring together connectivity, physical infrastructure, power, networking and cybersecurity as part of a purpose-built resilience solution.

“ARNI opens up use cases that are difficult to address with traditional networking alone, whether that is keeping a remote operation connected, establishing communications quickly at a temporary location or providing an alternative when primary infrastructure is disrupted,” he added.

Gyde explained that New Zealand and Papua New Guinea present some very real connectivity challenges because of geography, dispersed populations and the number of organisations operating across regional or remote locations.

“For customers, the issue is not simply whether they can connect. It is whether they can remain securely connected when infrastructure is limited, unavailable or disrupted,” he said.

“That has implications for productivity, safety, service delivery and business continuity. We see an opportunity for our partners to apply the same enterprise-grade networking and cybersecurity principles they use in conventional environments to situations where connectivity has traditionally been harder to deliver.”

According to Gyde, this agreement gives partners another way to solve “meaningful customer problems” and potentially expand the value they provide around those solutions.

“A partner may already be working with a customer on Fortinet networking or cybersecurity. ARNI can broaden that conversation to include connectivity resilience, remote operations, business continuity and disaster preparedness, without necessarily requiring the customer to move away from technology investments they have already made,” he said.

“There is also a services opportunity. Designing, deploying and supporting resilient connectivity can create scope for partners to build managed and professional services around the underlying technology.

He ended, “That creates value for the customer while giving partners the opportunity to build longer-term relationships around operational resilience.”