Exclusive Networks’ next acquisition “may not be a distributor”, its new UK boss revealed as he opened up on his quest to find the next Palo Alto Networks, as well as who he sees as his biggest competitor.
The global VAD last March completed its takeover by a consortium led by Permira, CD&N and Exclusive Founder Olivier Breittmayer after three slightly frustrating years on the Euronext Paris stock exchange.
Talking to IT Channel Oxygen, newly appointed UK Country Manager Adam Williamson claimed Exclusive’s go-private move will enable it to invest more in its value creation plans, particularly in the area of services.
“We’ve got a traditional support centre which is a very, very highly regarded at a customer level and a partner level,” he said.
“But end customers need more than support now; they need to have help in consuming the technology.
“While we’re never going to be moving away from our roots as a distributor, we’re going to make sure we’re wrapping a lot more services that are ultimately end-customer facing but still through the channel.”
There are two types of PE, namely those that “strip you apart and minimise costs” and those – like CD&N – that “create long-term value”, Williamson said.
“Of course, along with that will come M&A activity,” Williamson said.
Having recently joined the €1bn club when adding in its Ignition and Nuaware subsidiaries, Exclusive Networks will likely break that figure in its own right in 2026, Williamson indicated.
Would the size and maturity of the UK business preclude further M&A here?
“If we think about M&A in the UK, it might not be a distributor we would look at acquiring,” Williamson responded.
“It would be around that that long-term value creation in services.”
“We’re going to see another security boom”
Having personally helped seed the UK market for Palo Alto Networks, Williamson is placing his bets on the emerging arena of AI security to produce the sector’s next smash hit.
In the space of around five years, Williamson helped take the next-generation firewall vendor from zero to £35m revenues in the UK. He joined Exclusive predecessor brand as a Vendor Relationship Manager at predecessor brand VADition in 2009.
“[Palo Alto] was a very exciting brand, and still is today, but ultimately we hadn’t sold anything at that point,” Williamson recalled.
“It was very much about taking that new messaging to the firewall market and trying to get in as many fights as possible.
“There was a lot of interest, but it wasn’t as easy as it might have looked.”
Asked whether today’s Exclusive still has the bandwidth to take on a zero-revenue start-up, Williamson said the answer is “arguably both [yes and no]”.
“Whilst I’d love to sit here and say, ‘yeah, we’re going to take on 20 new startup vendors, we’ve got to be realistic about where we actually sit now,” he said.
“Our wheelhouse is now scaling vendors – putting that same amount of energy into a SentinelOne or a Netskope.
“But I’m quite entrepreneurial, so I do love the idea of launching a brand-new vendor. It would have to have the right position in what’s happening within the cyber market, be complementary to something we’re already doing, or something completely new.
“If you start thinking about some of the AI security vendors coming onto the market, we do expect there to be strong demand. Some of those we’re speaking with are almost at zero dollar but will have a heavy ramp.”
Williamson likened the tantalising AI security opportunity to last decade’s cloud-driven security boom.
“You could compare it to when everyone started to put processors into the cloud,” he explained.
“There was an assumption that [it was a case of] ‘post that in, insert cloud provider, that will be secure’.
“The reality was, actually, no, that isn’t secure. You still need to have a proper security approach to it.
“I think that as we see this AI boom, we’re also going to see another boom in security to make sure what people have already done is secure.”
Do any AI security start-ups give Williamson that same tingling feeling he got with Palo in 2009?
“Yes, definitely,” he responded.
“If you start to think about the fact that everybody needs to know what instances or models of AI they’ve deployed already, there’s a lot of confusion out there at an end-customer level.
“I’m speaking with one particular vendor that has an ability to automatically tell you where your AI models are being deployed.
“If we were to go back to some of the early messaging at VADition, it was, ‘if you can’t see it, you can’t secure it’. If people are unaware of who’s deployed certain usages of AI and what data’s gone into it, you’re kind of snookered from the start .
“We do see there’s going to be a huge interest in that kind of technology, and that’ll be at the enterprise level from the get-go.”
“Our biggest direct competitor without a shadow of a doubt”
Exclusive Networks was recently branded “our biggest competitor” by Williamson’s opposite number at Westcon.
Does Williamson reciprocate?
“Westcon have done a fantastic job of evolving their business and are very active in the cyber market – therefore I have massive respect for them,” he said.
“Without a shadow of a doubt we would see Arrow as our biggest direct competitor, but obviously [security] is just an element of their portfolio.
“Ultimately we bump heads with Arrow and Westcon on a regular basis.
“Of course, we compete with Infinigate because we sell technology that competes with technology they sell. But it’s very rare we would be in the same opportunity with the same technology.”
Williamson was handed the Country Manager role in October following predecessor Rob Tomlin’s promotion to a wider European role.
“I’ve been with the company for 16 years, so it was bit of a long interview for the role,” Williamson said.
“I’m excited about what we’re going to be able to achieve as we move forward on our next stages of growth.”
Doug Woodburn is editor of IT Channel Oxygen
