Rebuilding security
In the latest in the series on channel growth areas, TechTrade looks at the continuing development of the appliance which is having a profound effect on the security market. What are the main developments that will generate opportunities for channel partners over the rest of 2014 and into 2015? How prepared are they to deliver on those opportunities and what can they do to develop them further?
Renaissance director Michael Conway thinks the big change in the world of security appliances is that they are no longer just physical devices. Appliances can also be virtual or software-based. An appliance doesn’t have to be a box with flashing lights. Some people like to have a box on-site but they don’t need one if they don’t want one.
A lot of appliances are focusing on unified threat management (UTM), providing integrated solutions to security problems by including a firewall, mail filtering, Web filtering, intrusion detection, wireless security and more. The technology is “very sophisticated now”, Conway says, so unless the customer is a significant enterprise, integrated appliance solutions are more than adequate for most businesses’ security needs.
Despite the advantages of UTM, Conway believes adoption has been slower than it should have been. Why? He suggests there is a natural time lag between innovation and adoption because people want to see how it works before they commit. Nevertheless, those who have gone down the UTM path are replacing “a whole bunch of existing solutions with better technology that is integrated and can offer them cost savings. It can do everything the old technology ever did with more capabilities, more integration and at a lower price.”
Positioning
Channel partners making an investment in opening their minds, spending time listening and learning, training and accrediting in UTM are in a far better position than those who are “just licence renewers”, he argues. People just fulfilling an order are not offering good service.
Some point solutions have already started to disappear, Conway observes, as customers become more mature and open to hearing about virtual and software appliances. That said, Renaissance still sells more physical appliances because they “hit a spot, people buy them, plug them in, there’s a certain level of basic configuration and then off they go”.
Dermot Hayden, sales manager with Sophos Ireland reports that Sophos has experienced “humongous growth in its UTM business” with an increase of 100% year-on-year last year and expectations of 80-100% growth this year. He admits that the growth is starting from a low base in Ireland but even across Europe, growth has been in the region of 35-40%. “It’s a very hot topic with our customers at the moment,” he says.
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