Biodata Westcon Security, local distributor of Kaspersky Lab products, announced that Kaspersky Lab is looking to break into the managed security services game with the upcoming launch of its Service Provider Edition, which will give its partners the ability to sell anti-virus as a managed service.
At the 2011 Kaspersky Lab Americas Partner Conference, the company hinted at a managed security services and said it was an evolutionary step in Kaspersky's upcoming product roadmap.
Service Provider Edition will let partners manage anti-virus protection across their customers, enabling them to monitor and control customer security infrastructures. It can be offered as a subscription service.
And while getting into managed security services is new ground for Kaspersky, the company said itself and its partners are well equipped to handle the shift, and that managed services are something that key partners have been clamouring for as the IT world turns its attention to SaaS and cloud computing.
To get partners up to snuff and start the managed services ball rolling, Kaspersky is planning to educate them and foster partner-to-partner conversations. A good portion of Kaspersky's partner base already has some form of managed services offering. Those will be the first to benefit from the Service Provider Edition.
Partners that aren't quite ready to host their own managed security services can offer anti-virus using Service Provider Edition on existing cloud infrastructures.
Kaspersky President Steve Orenberg added that the new managed security services play from Kaspersky will help not only Kaspersky fuel growth, but boost partners' customer relationships as well. He said there are a number of partners currently in beta.
"On a managed service, what the end-user is doing is buying the relationship and the confidence with the channel partner. They're outsourcing their security; they're going to pick the solution that's right for them."
But Orenberg said Kaspersky's upcoming launch of the Service Provider Edition Managed Security offering goes beyond simply a new product release and way to enhance Kaspersky's brand.
"It's not really a branding exercise for that market, as much as it is exposing the channel to the opportunity," he said. "We have to go out, we have to promote the availability of managed services for the first couple of months...and attract more partners who have service capabilities in their portfolio."
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