According to Stefan van de Giessen, Security & GSI Lead Africa at Exclusive Networks Africa, the two businesses have already worked together on a significant local project, which saw the successful implementation recently of a microsegmentation strategy for an African telecommunications group.

“Having collaborated for the past six months on this particular deal, Akamai opted to broaden our partnership and leverage Exclusive Networks Africa’s extensive partner base across East, West and South Africa, as well as the Indian Ocean Islands and the Southern African Development Community (SADC) region, in line with the company’s strategy. Together, we will focus on delivering the benefits of microsegmentation to local enterprises, governments and telco organisations in particular” he said.

Software-based microsegmentation is an emerging security best practice that offers several advantages over more established approaches, like network or application segmentation. These traditional methods rely heavily on network-based controls that are coarse and often cumbersome to manage, notes Van de Giessen.

However, the software-based segmentation element of microsegmentation separates security controls from the underlying infrastructure and provides businesses with the flexibility to extend protection and visibility anywhere.

The added granularity that microsegmentation offers is essential at a time when many organisations are adopting cloud services and new deployment options, like containers, that make traditional perimeter security less relevant.

Says Van de Giessen: “Microsegmentation is essentially a software-defined network overlay that, through AI intelligence, allows for greater visibility around all assets within the network. This infrastructure visualisation is helpful in that it makes activity in the environment easier to identify and understand.

“This approach allows companies to ringfence their applications and servers and define which ones are able to talk to each other. This is critical in the case of, for instance, a ransomware attack, as the malware is not able to spread to other machines within the network due to these authorisation parameters. The ability to lock down a device individually allows for greater control over the blast radius of an attack, which would not be possible with the use of a firewall, for instance.”

Furthermore, he explains, a software-based microsegmentation solution can be rolled out faster, seamlessly and with far less capital expenditure (Capex) than would be required to purchase firewall appliances and additional hardware.

“Microsegmentation also allows businesses to avoid lengthy implementation timelines – taking rollout timelines from over a year down to weeks – as well as the unavoidable related downtime, which comes with a hefty price tag. In addition, the reduced maintenance – and reduced management effort needed – results in far lower operating expenses (Opex) over time, in the form of labour and resource savings.”

“Microsegmentation may be a newer concept to many, but it is becoming an increasingly important tool for IT teams challenged with ensuring that security policies and compliance keep pace with the rapid rate of change in today’s dynamic data centre, cloud, and hybrid cloud environments,” Van de Giessen concludes.

Speaking about the partnership, Hans Nipshagen (Regional Vice President of Channels and Alliances EMEA at Akamai) said: ‘We are excited to team up with Exclusive Networks and their strong ecosystem of local partners to deliver our microsegmentation services, enhancing cybersecurity for customers across the African markets.’

For more information on Exclusive Networks Africa, please visit https://www.exclusive-networks.com/za/, or contact Dean Steenkamp, Vendor Alliance Manager at Exclusive Networks Africa on +27 (0) 11 202 8400 or dsteenkamp@exclusive-networks.co.za.

This new development signifies the company’s steadfast commitment to investing in the region and bolstering its presence in West Africa, stated Anton Jacobsz, Exclusive Networks Africa’s managing director.

“The opening of our new Nigerian office represents more than just having a brick-and-mortar presence in the country, it is a symbol of our dedication and investment in Nigeria and the broader West Africa region,” he explained. “With over a decade of operations in the region, this development represents a strategic move to better serve the local market and provide enhanced support to our vendors and channel partners.”

The timing of the company’s expansion aligns with the Nigerian government’s recent announcement of a levy on domestic transfers to fund cybersecurity initiatives—underscoring the growing focus on cybersecurity in the region, and Africa in its entirety.

“The cost of cybercrime is expected to reach $23.82 trillion globally by 2027, according to Statista, and we’re seeing that Africa is being increasingly targeted by cyber criminals. Threats like ransomware and distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks will continue to be seen across the continent, reinforcing the need for local organisations to ensure that they have the right protection measures in place.”

The new Nigerian premises adds to the copany’s existing footprint on the continent, within East and West Africa, the Southern African Development Community (SADC), and the Indian Ocean Islands.

Exclusive Networks Africa’s expansion into Nigeria not only highlights its continued success across the continent but also its mission to become the value-added distributor of choice in Africa, an entity committed to the growth, protection, and success of the region.

“We are excited about the opportunities that Nigeria presents and look forward to working closely with our partners to deliver cutting-edge cybersecurity solutions to businesses across the region,” added Jacobsz.

With the opening of its new office in Lagos, Exclusive Networks Africa is poised to further strengthen its position as a premier provider of cybersecurity and cloud solutions in Africa, empowering businesses to navigate the evolving threat landscape and thrive in the digital age.

The distribution agreement will see Exclusive Networks Africa marketing, selling, and supporting Proofpoint’s entire portfolio of security and compliance solutions across several of its key regions, namely East Africa, West Africa and the Indian Ocean Islands.

“Email remains the number one threat vector, with cybercriminals consistently using social engineering attacks to target organisation’s employees and trick them into falling victim to attacks,” says Mark Bennett, Senior Director Channel, Northern Europe, Middle East & Africa. “Proofpoint protects organisations’ greatest assets and biggest risks: their people. With an integrated suite of cloud-based solutions, Proofpoint integrates a people-centric view into its security platform to easily identify vulnerable users and create a tailored security approach to best protect each individual employee, across multiple cloud platforms.”

Anton Jacobsz, managing director of Exclusive Networks Africa, clarifies:

“Through our relationship with Proofpoint, we have partnered with a specialist cybersecurity company that is recognised by Gartner and uses artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) in its offering. Cybersecurity requires speed and Proofpoint’s use of innovation and disruption to deliver partner value makes excellent logical and business sense. We are very pleased to have found an excellent partner fit with the company.”

The agreement enables Exclusive Networks Africa to sell Proofpoint’s entire portfolio, spanning the  company’s Aegis Threat Protection, Identity Threat Defense and Sigma Information Protection platforms, which thwart threats across the most critical stages of the cybercriminal’s attack chain.

Fuelled by trillions of detected threat activities sourced from one of the most comprehensive data sets in the industry, Proofpoint’s AI- and ML-powered innovations equip security practitioners with unmatched visibility, flexibility, and depth to detect and disrupt sophisticated adversaries across their organisations’ attack surfaces.

“Proofpoint analyses more human communications than any other cybersecurity company,” continues Bennett, “and our partner’s customers benefit from one of the largest and most diverse global cybersecurity data pipelines across email, the cloud, and mobile computing.

In conclusion, Bennett notes:

“This extended collaboration with Exclusive Networks delivers first-class cybersecurity protection that meets the needs of all organisations facing today’s fast-evolving threat landscape and further enforces Proofpoint’s commitment to its channel business in Africa and across EMEA as a whole.”