Security: All in One vs. Best of Breed

There are still plenty of appliance-based and best-of-breed security solutions out there, and as the Forrester survey reveals, plenty of interest among customers in using them. Chris Metcalf, vice president of marketing at Total Tech LLC, a technology services firm in San Diego, says his company has opted for “just a few point solutions,” from the likes of Websense (for Web filtering), Sendio (for antispam), and ESET (for antivirus). “For our customers, who tend to have between 10 and 50 seats, the point products provide the security they need without a lot of unnecessary features,” Metcalf says.


With sentiment decidedly split over hardware and software security preferences, how do VARs know which makes the most sense for their customers? One guiding principle is to think of security in terms of services and not just technology. “Successful VARs look at security as a discipline and a practice, and not [as an opportunity for] selling a technology and moving on,” says Mike Valentine, vice president, Americas channel sales for Fortinet Inc., a Sunnyvale, Calif.-based provider of unified threat management (UTM) appliances that combine multiple security technologies, including firewall, intrusion detection/prevention systems, antispam, and antivirus. “VARs shouldn’t approach security as a way of dropping a box at a customer site and walking away,” says Valentine. “Security is an opportunity to create a business relationship with customers that leads to recurring revenue.”


Ross Duncan, vice president for the channel, North America, at Gemalto, a provider of digital security products based in the Netherlands, agrees. “Monitoring, provisioning, turning access off when employees leave … these are real-world security scenarios,” Duncan says. “A channel partner can work with customers to solve them.”


Jon Oltsik, senior analyst of information security at the Enterprise Strategy Group, sums up the prevailing sentiment succinctly. “The biggest growth area in security right now is professional services,” he says.
That service philosophy is what propels All Covered. “It makes sense for VARs to lead with a service rather than a product,” says Nick Pegley, vice president of marketing for the company. “Take into account all the threats, then compliance and regulatory issues, and use that to assess a client situation and then provide a solution.”


In All Covered’s case, that means offering customers products from Cisco, Symantec, and Postini, a provider of messaging security products. All Covered provides a hosted, managed service through Postini, which prevents malicious Internet traffic from reaching customer networks. “With a hosted service, it’s very easy to get a customer started, and there’s nothing to deploy on-site,” Pegley says.


For SMBs, the appeal of integrated security solutions is obvious. With few, if any, dedicated security professionals, small companies nevertheless need comprehensive security protection. Integrated products offer a breadth of protection with the added benefits of ease of management, streamlined maintenance, and lower cost when compared with individual point solutions that are collectively deployed. “Through the channel, VARs can sell a complete, holistic approach to Internet security,” says Jim Gildea, director of North American marketing at Grisoft Inc., a provider of Internet security software based in Millburn, N.J. “When integrated, there is a single point of management and updating, something that’s key for the SMB market because their IT departments typically have a lot on their plates.”


For security VAR Great Lakes Networks LLC, in Rochester, N.Y., multifunction UTM devices have proved popular with customers, particularly those that don’t have the staff to maintain point solutions. “UTMs are also good solutions for customers that don’t have security policies,” says Allen Scalise, Great Lakes president. “UTMs help cover the policy ground by delivering updates and blocking threats before they get to the network.”


On the other hand, there is a potential shortcoming with integrated solutions. Since they are packed with multiple functions, they can compromise the performance of computers and applications. “Some products have become so overloaded, they are slowing down PCs and hitting end users with pop-ups and license updates,” says Gildea.


There’s a constant battle to balance protection with convenience. Companies need to have adequate security measures, but they are not willing to compromise performance to get them. “Security should really be unobtrusive to the end user,” Gildea says. 


Luke Walling, president of Walling Data Systems Inc., a Grisoft reseller in Claremont, N.C., agrees. “The best security should be invisible to end users,” he says.