On the job for only a week or so at Sophos, Global Channel Chief Steve Hale has some clear thoughts on Sophos recently acquiring Astaro, a channel-centric security company. During a quick phone chat with The VAR Guy a few minutes ago, Hale made some clear promises to Astaro channel partners. Here’s the update.

When it comes to Sophos acquiring Astaro, “We will integrate where we should and leave things alone where we should,” said Hale. “Right now the message is Astaro has a great channel program and we have a do-no-harm strategy. I will be all over making sure we do a good job with Astaro.”

Hale joined Sophos from Novell, which was recently acquired by Attachmate. He has also held top channel posts at Microsoft and F5. “For me it’s about kicking into high gear, leveraging everything I learned at Microsoft, Novell and F5,” said Hale.

But what attracted Hale to Sophos? His simple answer: The people… “working with really good people,” said Hale.

During our quick discussion Hale did not discuss the nuts-and-bolts of his channel vision. But in terms of big-picture strategy, the goal is to have global reach and — in many cases — global consistency in the channel. Still, Hale conceded, there might be regions that require specialized partner program components.

Hale arrives at Sophos during an intriguing time. The company is owned by a private equity group, with a firm commitment to gain ground on Symantec, McAfee, Trend Micro and other entrenched security software providers. The VAR Guy will be watching Hale and tracking potential Sophos progress.

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