Headquarters: Sandy, Utah

Technology Sector: Security

Key Product: Network Composer

Year Founded: 2004

Number of Channel Partners: 750 worldwide

Ideal Channel Partner: Midmarket-focused solution providers

Why You Should Care: Cymphonix helps keep networks secure by combining content filtering, application control and threat management.

The Lowdown: Cymphonix serves up a total Internet traffic package with its Network Composer appliance-based product, helping companies and institutions both optimize bandwidth utilization and network security.

Partners installing Network Composer, the vendor's key product, can often save their customers significant money that would otherwise be spent on simply buying more bandwidth.

Cymphonix started as a developer of a purpose-built Internet traffic manager for small business customers but quickly outgrew that narrow focus, said Brent Nixon, the vendor's president.

"As we migrated down the path into more channel partners, larger customers, they wanted more tools and policies to deal with the security of their content," he said. So Cymphonix added several new layers to the capabilities of its on-premises appliance -- including core security duties like looking for malware and viruses in incoming Internet traffic.

Cymphonix DC40X

That added more teeth to an offering that was already on the cutting edge of traffic management strategy, Nixon said, noting that many Cymphonix customers have realized that blocking certain Web sites from employee access is just part of what a good traffic management solution should provide.

"Now they want a solution that provides true visibility into the company's Internet traffic, but also security features," Nixon said. "As we talked to analysts and key partners, it became clear that visibility is the key component. So at any organization, lots of employees are using Internet, but do you have a true knowledge of what they're doing?

Nixon said the rise of bandwidth-hogging streaming media sites like YouTube have made it crucial for companies to detect, manage and efficiently allocate their Internet traffic at a more granular level across the entire organization.

And thanks to the deep packet inspection provided by the vendor's inline appliance, IT managers or managed service providers can quickly see which specific user or users are slowing down the Internet and troubleshoot the problem.

Like many vendors, Cymphonix has a traditional VAR channel that serves in-house IT departments but is increasingly partnering with MSPs who manage Network Composer from offsite as part of total IT service packages for small and midmarket companies, as well as education and other public sector customers. Another natural play for Cymphonix is in public Internet access areas, such as hotels, convention centers and airports, Nixon said.

"Our product lends itself well to a managed services practice. The device automatically e-mails out reports from the on-premises appliance to the MSP," he said.

"But we're not just an MSP play," Nixon added, noting that Network Composer installations scale from "25 users to 25,000-user environments" with prices as low as $1,500 up to the hundreds of thousands of dollars Cymphonix takes in for major projects.

"A typical partner who does well with our product is north of $2 million in annual sales, has a good technical services group, and understands networking and security products. We will get installed in conjunction with a firewall, so older firewalls getting replaced is a good door-opener for us," Nixon said.