The Clearwater-based distributor will carry Check Point's VPN-1/FireWall-1 Small Office to help Check Point reach the SMB market, said executives at both companies.

Check Point VPN-1/FireWall-1 Small Office includes firewall protection and integrated site-to-site and remote-access VPN capabilities for up to 50 nodes, said Jerry Ungerman, president of Redwood City, Calif.-based Check Point.

"Security is essential for some 10 million small to medium-sized businesses connecting to the Internet today," said Ungerman in a statement.

In the near future, Tech Data plans to distribute Check Point's VPN-1/FireWall-1 enterprise applications, as well as Check Point-based turnkey security appliances.

"Security remains one of the fastest-growing and most opportunistic markets for our resellers, and Check Point is the recognized security industry leader," said Tamra Muir, vice president of software product marketing for Tech Data. "This partnership allows us to expand and strengthen our existing security offerings to bring more choice to our resellers and best-in-class security to their customers."