Trend Micro has appointed Willem Barnard in the role of business development manager: cloud and alliances.

In his role he will be responsible for all of Trend Micro’s offerings available in either a private or public cloud environment, including its public cloud partners Amazon Web Services (AWS), Microsoft Azure and the Google Cloud Platform (GCP), as well as its VMware alliance.

Prior to joining Trend Micro, Barnard has for the last 15 years held various roles in the capacity of business development manager for a host of security products. Most recently he was business unit manager at Blue Turtle Technologies for its security division.

“Cloud security is a key focus area for Trend Micro and has been identified as a major driver in our future growth strategy. We are constantly on the lookout for ways to improve our programmes to better serve our partners and provide them with the internal resources needed to get their customers to better experience our products,” states Indi Siriniwasa, vice-president: sub-Saharan Africa at Trend Micro.

“I am thrilled to have Willem as a part of the team and believe that his years of industry experience will prove to be an invaluable asset to our cloud and alliances division.”

Over the last decade, Barnard says he has seen the security landscape drastically change, and with his experience he has gained insight into where the market is going and what trends are shaping the future of the industry.

“It is my first priority to build strong relationships between Trend Micro, major cloud providers and alliance partners for sub-Saharan Africa,” Barnard says. “Worldwide, Trend Micro is the partner of choice when it comes to security for both Azure and AWS, and my goal is to establish the same standard in sub-Saharan Africa.

“The next step for me is to start showcasing the added value that Trend Micro can bring to customers aligned to our alliance and cloud partners,” he adds.