Trend Micro Launches SaaS Security Platform

The platform's new Botnet Identification Service aims to identify command-and-control centers that are operating zombie networks and then enable users to block communications between those centers and the zombie PCs they control.

Other applications available through the platform include the company's E-mail Reputation Services, which scans incoming e-mails and checks them against the reputation of senders' IP addresses and enables administrators to set policies, and the InterScan Messaging Hosted Security, a hosted e-mail security service designed to protect against such threats as viruses, spam, malware and phishing.

Partners have several options in how they can sell the services, says John Maddison, general manager of Trend Micro Network Services. VARs can resell the service to their customer, who can then manage the services through a portal, or partners can sell the service to their customers and manage it for them as well. Partners can also opt to sell the service as a white-label offering. In that model, Trend can host the platform or partners can host it in their own data centers.

Email Reputation Services costs $6.80 per user for 250 users, InterScan Hosted Messaging Security costs $28.50 per user for 250 users, and the Botnet Identification Service costs 9 cents per user for 500,000 users.

Partners can offer the services through Trend Micro's recently announced management console, called the Worry Free Remote Manager, a tool designed to let channel partners remotely manage their customers' security software.

About 200 resellers are now using the remote manager tool, says Nancy Reynolds, vice president of SMB channel marketing and sales, for Trend Micro.

"We have enabled partners to sell different managed services offerings around security solutions, which affords them the on-going touch point with their customers," Reynolds says.

Trend Micro plans to add new services around e-mail, Web and end point security to the platform in the next several quarters as well as further ease management capabilities for partners, Maddison says.

Some VARs say they are starting to move further into the security SaaS space.

"We're investing more into offering hosted solutions for at least our SMB customers, we do believe this is a trend where we'll see more usage of that type of a solution. SMBs are not as focused on control like larger enterprises, and my belief is that this is a case where we'll see a gradual move by some customers to this type of model," says Tom Ruffolo, president of security solutions provider eSecurityToGo, in Irvine, Calif.

Trend Micro's not the only security vendor moving deeper into the SaaS space. Symantec, for example, is currently beta-testing with partners its own SaaS platform, called the Symantec Protection Network. In October, Symantec will roll out the first offering based on that platform. The new offering, called Online Backup Service, is designed as a data backup and restoration service.