Ironkey orders Cohort to unlock security channel

Simms International loses sole-supplier status as secure flash drive vendor appoints second distributor

Secure flash drive vendor Ironkey has appointed Cohort Technology as its second UK distributor in a bid to crack the security channel.

Ironkey signed Simms International as sole UK distributor in 2008 but Simms’ managing director Andrew Henderson said the vendor had openly been hunting for a security specialist for over a year.

“We understand Ironkey’s reasons,” he said. “It always said it wanted to have a presence in the security market and Simms is focused on traditional IT resellers.”

Grahame Smee (pictured), managing director of Cohort, said Ironkey fits well with the distributor’s focus on large data loss prevention and encryption projects.

“Our brief is to go after the security partner market, which is our area of focus,” he said. “Ironkey’s cloud-based management system is great for larger deployments.”

Simms is a big memory distributor and partners with Kingston Technology. Henderson downplayed suggestions that Ironkey felt the need to reduce its dependency on Simms in the wake of Kingston’s recent USB security partnership with rival BlockMaster.

“Certainly that wasn’t given to us as a reason. Ironkey has been talking about developing its business in the security market for over a year,” he said.

Ironkey was unavailable for comment.