Westcon-Comstor has pocketed a 90% share of AWS Marketplace’s new distribution programme, its new European boss claimed as he discussed its burgeoning success with CrowdStrike and Z-Scaler and the future of distribution.
Rene Klein was put in charge of Westcon-Comstor’s entire $2.25bn-revenue European business in March.
Cisco-dedicated arm Comstor generates around 35-40% of the total, with cybersecurity and networking arm Westcon – which Klein already ran – contributing the remainder.
Orchestration manoeuvres
Klein mirrored past statements from the distributor by saying it sees hyperscaler marketplaces as a “new route to market” rather than a threat.
Westcon-Comstor has quickly built three routes to market with AWS, namely around migration (via its purchase last year of Rebura), AWS distribution (it won a European distribution RFI last November) and AWS Marketplace’s new Designated Seller of Record (DSOR) programme for distributors.
“We were on the front foot of DSOR – designing the partner programme, designing the way it works; we were the first cybersecurity DSOR in Europe,” said Klein, who is Executive Vice President for Europe.
“We’ve been told by AWS that in Europe, for AWS DSOR – until the end of January – we have 90% marketshare.”
“I think this will all evolve to just an orchestration function for the distributor,” Klein added.
“We will become the orchestrator of partners, where the end user says, ‘okay, I have credits to spend on AWS… or we need to go for a traditional deal… or is there an enterprise license agreement from a vendor and I want to transact in that way’?
“That’s one way I see the role of distribution evolving, which will definitely include hyperscalers like AWS.”
Z-Striking it lucky
Asked about which vendors are lighting up Westcon-Comstor’s 2025, Klein said the distributor is seeing “enormous acceleration” of its business with complementary “next-generation” outfits CrowdStrike and Z-scaler.
“We have taken them to the next level in our strategic portfolio, which we call ‘Z-Strike’,” he said.
“We have dedicated teams who are accelerating Z-scaler and CrowdStrike further, from the next-generation solutions they were two years ago into key vendors next to Cisco, Palo Alto, Check Point and F5.”
“It wasn’t seen two or three years ago”
Westcon-Comstor has “chosen to be ahead” of the discussion about whether distributors can continue to play a role in the channel in the decades to come, Klein claimed.
He gave the example of Westcon-Comstor’s ‘Tech Xpert’ community of partner solutions architects, as well as its 3D Lab, where partners can learn and demo next-generation cyber and networking solutions.
Tech Xpert already has 5,000 members in Europe alone, Klein claimed.
“They are a community that is sharing ideas and best practice. We invite them to be exposed to CIOs of end users and vendors. It’s a techie-only, sealed community. That’s a role in distribution that wasn’t seen two or three years ago,” he explained.
“3D Lab is a proof of concept where partners can in 48 hours say, ‘I’m looking for CrowdStrike together with a Cisco environment’ and showcase that.
“One of the [other new things] we do is intelligent demand at scale. It’s great that distributors provide leads to the channel, but how do you do that at scale in 17 countries, with 25 vendors?
“That’s how we try to be different from other distributors.”
“Too much value in Comstor brand”
Bringing Westcon and Comstor under Klein’s leadership in Europe mirrors how Westcon-Comstor is already organised in APAC and MEA.
Is this a prelude to even closer integration between the two brands?
“I think there’s just too much value in the Comstor brand to say ‘oh, let’s all become Westcon or all become Comstor’,” Klein replied.
“The UK channel, as well as Cisco as a vendor, are [too] familiar with Comstor, but they see a lot of value in what we’ve created in the cybersecurity world within Westcon around 3D Labs or Tech Xpert.
“Due to the fact we now have a new European organisation, this is now all available for the Westcon and the Comstor reseller base.”
Doug Woodburn is editor of IT Channel Oxygen
