Channel Chiefs: The Security Conversation

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At a recent CRN Roundtable, channel chiefs from across the IT industry said they have seen a notable increase in interest around security, from both end users and channel partners.

Sophos’ Mike Valentine said companies that were previously uninterested in security have come to the company looking for direction.

’Before, what they would do,is I think they would just go and partner with somebody for the security piece. They didn’t want to really invest in it,’ Valentine said. He said now those companies want security from mobile to gateway, on-premise and in the cloud.

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Craig West of Netsuite said, ’Security is table stakes for us, right? We don’t get to the table if we’re not secure.’ West said right now NetSuite’s focus is on enabling partners on how to have conversations around security with line-of-business managers.

Frank Rauch said security has been a central focus for VMware from the beginning because of the nature of the company’s solutions. ’It had to be secure. I mean, when you’re putting virtual workloads out there you need to be able to figure out security,’ he said.

Toshiba’s Richard Vaughn said end users’ demand for security has spiked, and that extends to even their accessory products, like flash cards and PC cards.

’Security is a big topic of conversation that we have, and especially as we start looking at and into health-care or legal practices, and some of our enterprise customers, that’s a constant conversation that we’re having with the channel,’ he said.

PUBLISHED APRIL 24, 2015