Security Stays Strong

ACCESS CONTROL/AUTHENICATION
Solution providers looking for a greenfield opportunity will have to get creative in the maturing IT security market, but they could do worse than building an access control/authentication portfolio.

It's a market that seems to be catching solution providers' attention. Only 35 percent of surveyed partners said they currently offer access control products including NAC, identity management and authentication technologies such as password management and biometrics, putting it at the bottom of the list of the top seven technologies currently driving security sales. But when VARs look to the future, access control and authentication technologies topped the list of offerings they plan to add over the next 18 months.

It makes sense. Respondents list data loss/breaches and internal threats as two of the top three security issues their customers face. Controlling who has access to sensitive data is seen as both a profitable and fast-growth IT security arena.

Steve Stratton, vice president at Honolulu-based solution provider Commercial Data Systems Inc., said firms looking to make a move in access control and authentication have an opportunity that's rare in the IT security game: a chance to bring truly innovative new products and services to market.

Stratton, who works closely with the U.S. Department of Defense, said mobility has added a whole new dynamic to access control. That means plenty of opportunities for the channel to develop new solutions.

It's not the size of the business that drives access control and authentication needs but rather the business processes customers use, Stratton added.

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