As RSA Focuses On Solutions, Will Partners Follow?

One year after being acquired by data storage system giant EMC, RSA Security is taking some big steps in its evolution from selling security authentication point products to developing data security solutions. The question is, how many of the company's channel partners are ready to make the same leap?

At a three-day partner conference in Hilton Head, S.C., this month, RSA executives briefed solution providers on the company's technology and marketing strategies, and the message was that RSA—now officially "RSA, the security division of EMC"—is raising the bar for its channel partners. "We're upping the ante on the partner side," acknowledged Michael Ross, RSA area vice president, North American channels. "The partners who really get it will tell you it's their services that are driving their sales."

The message seemed to resonate among the 120 or so RSA partners attending the conference who, admittedly, represent the cream of RSA's reseller crop. "The game is changing. It's not a product sale anymore," said Thomas Gobeille, president and CEO of Network Computing Architects, a Bellevue, Wash., solution provider. Leading channel partners are selling systems built around such concepts as compliance and risk management, he said. Noting that his company now has four engineers certified in RSA's enVision security information and event management technology, Gobeille said, "We're investing because we see the vision."

EMC's vision wasn't so clear in September 2006 when it closed the $2.1 billion acquisition of RSA. Industry observers didn't see the fit between EMC's data storage business and RSA's SecureID Tokens for Authentication products. Almost overlooked at the time was EMC's acquisition of Network Intelligence, now part of the RSA division, and its enVision security information and event management (SIEM) tools.

EMC now bills itself as a supplier of data life-cycle management systems, marketing hardware and software for managing corporate data from its creation to when it's discarded. RSA fits into the picture by providing technology for securing data; giving a company's employees, business partners and customers access to the data; and—through the enVision software—capturing information from system logs about who is accessing the data.

Between 65 and 70 percent of RSA's revenue still comes from its authentication security products, said Brien Naylon, VP of Americas enterprise sales, and he exhorted resellers not to ignore that core business. But bookings through the channel increased 37 percent in the first three quarters of 2007 versus the same period last year and Naylon said newer technologies like enVision are driving much of that growth.

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