Check Point Software Technologies, one of the world’s leading security software vendors, has appointed Niall Moynihan as its Irish country manager.
The company, which has sold its products for many years in Ireland through the distribution and reseller channel, said the move would allow it to offer local management and support to suppliers and customers based in this country.
Moynihan, a native of Cork, has been with Check Point for almost nine years and has held technical roles at a European level within the company during that time. In his new role he has also been given responsibility for the South African market and he plans to divide his time between there and a base in Dublin.
Speaking to siliconrepublic.com, Moynihan said his role would be to educate the Irish market about Check Point’s new products, as he said there was a perception that the company’s focus was narrowly on protecting the perimeter of the network through its traditional firewall software. “Now, it’s not just about the perimeter, it’s about management or the desktop. There are loads of products out there and if a vendor is not in the market, it can get confusing for people to understand what it is offering,” he said.
He plans to run events over the coming months to raise the profile of the company’s new product set and to educate the market about it. “The products have evolved and the market has evolved,” he said. One area of key focus for Check Point in Ireland will be on securing connections for remote users into their company’s systems.
Another will be on businesses with branch operations, as new products make it possible to connect these sites securely to their head office using secure sockets layer (SSL) technology. “Adoption levels [in Ireland] should be the same as in the UK for SSL but they’re not,” he said. “SSL is a lot more cost-effective than IPsec, that’s why it’s gathering momentum now,” claimed Moynihan.
Check Point has projected growth rates of 28pc for the coming year and Moynihan said he expected the Irish market would grow at least in line with that.
By Gordon Smith
