The sub-Saharan Africa, Regional Manager of Blue Coat Systems, a market leader in business assurance technology, Mr. Justin Lee, said it has appointed Layer3, an innovative network solutions provider, as its premier partner in the West African sub region.

The disclosure was made in a statement made available to THISDAY in Abuja recently.

Part of the statements read: "We are pleased to partner with an innovative and well respected solution provider such as Layer3 and to elevate them to the premier partnership level." said Lee.

The statement further added: "Layer3 has built a reputation for excellence in its field and has a client roster of some of the most demanding companies in Nigeria. "We are very pleased to be working with them to ensure our solutions are delivered to customers in the best possible manner." he added.

Layer3 is one of Nigeria's fastest growing networking and managed services provider, a specialist in providing innovative solutions that is changing the way networks are built and run in the West African region.

"We are pleased to partner with an innovative and well respected solution provider such as Layer3 and to elevate them to the Premier partnership level," said Justin Lee, Regional Manager for Sub-Saharan Africa at Blue Coat. "Layer3 has built a reputation for excellence in its field and has a client roster of some of the most demanding companies in Nigeria. We are very pleased to be working with them to ensure our solutions are delivered to customers in the best possible manner." he added.

According to Lee, Blue Coat empowers enterprises to safely and securely choose the best, applications, services, devices, data sources, and content the world has to offer, so they can create, communicate, collaborate, innovate, execute, compete and win in their markets, adding that the company is recognized in the leader's quadrant in both garter magic quadrants for WAN optimization controllers and secure web gateway.

Blue Coat, according to the statement, has a long history of protecting organizations, their data and their employees and is the trusted brand to 15,000 customers worldwide, including 86 percent of the Fortune global 500 companies.

According to the statement, the Product Manager, Layer3, Mr. Robert Ebere, said: "With a robust portfolio of intellectual property anchored by more than 200 patents and patents pending, the company continues to drive innovations that assure business continuity, agility and governance.

"We are committed to providing our clients with the best of web security and WAN optimisation solutions.

"As a trusted advisor, our clients look to us for help in making sound infrastructure investments based on their unique immediate and long-term needs. After a solution has been chosen, they rely on us for successful implementation, configuration and integration."

On the implication of the partnership, Ebere added: "Our Blue Coat premier partner achievement is a testament of our investment in training and product knowledge to enable us create more value for our customers."