T.J. Alldridge, product marketing manager for Trend Micro, likes to ask channel partners whether any of them are making money selling online storage from Box and Dropbox, rivals of Trend Micro's SafeSync. When no hands go up his answer is always the same, "That's because you can't sell them."
That difference in having a partner program is what the security vendor is hoping will drive business sales of SafeSync, which is built on technology Trend Micro acquired in June 2010 with the purchase of Leeds, U.K.-based Humyo. To give the channel more business features to sell, Trend Micro released Tuesday an upgrade of SafeSync for Business, which the company released in May.
The product, targeted at SMBs, starts at $180 a month for two users, each getting 50 GB of online storage. SafeSync scales up to 25 users.
In general, SafeSync is easier to use than the original launch. SafeSync sets up its own folder in a Windows PC or Mac. Files dragged into the SafeSync folder can be synchronized with the cloud by right clicking on them. From that point on, syncs are automatic. The business product also has a team folder for collaboration and versioning.
As a security vendor, Trend Micro is hoping to earn points with business. The company provides 256-bit AES encryption during data transfers. The company's U.S. data center is in San Jose, Calif. and it has one in Germany that opened this week. The company also has a U.K. data center, but that will eventually be folded into the German facility. Trend Micro has a large customer base in Germany. Japan remains its number one market, with the U.S. in the top five.
Cupertino, Calif.-based Trend Micro provides a service level agreement that guarantees 99.9 percent uptime each month. If that uptime falls by 4 percent or more, than there's no charge for the month. A drop between 1 percent and 4 percent results in a reduction in the monthly fee by 20 percent to 80 percent, Alldridge said.
