Guarding The Roost, Remotely

Sophisticated global monitoring firms such as Integralis are setting up shop in the United States with plans to build reseller channels for their security monitoring services. Major vendors including McAfee are adding new layers to their security monitoring arsenals, while giving VARs more opportunities to become MSPs by co-branding the same services. And a growing field of network and security monitoring vendors such as Postini, Perimeter Internetworking, LPI Level Platforms, SilverBack Technologies and N-able Technologies are giving VARs more choices with security monitoring solutions that range from the expensive to the downright discount.

McAfee, for example, is close to finalizing the details of a partnership with Integralis that will make available to McAfee partners Integralis' massive global security monitoring infrastructure. Integralis is a heavy hitter in the security monitoring world and provides such a back end for Verizon, Check Point Software Technologies and other companies, said Thomas Wagg, president of Integralis' newly launched U.S. operations in East Hartford, Conn.

McAfee already offers partners re-sellable security monitoring through its Partner Security Services (PSS), which gives resellers 30 days to test drive the services at no cost. But the relationship with Integralis will fortify PSS with additional depth, including new services that cover the monitoring of spyware and a portfolio of services customized for the SMB market, said David Roberts, senior vice president, North American Channels, at McAfee, Santa Clara, Calif.

"PSS has typically been for monitoring 100 nodes and below, in some cases reaching up into the 500- or 1,500-node range, even 10,000 nodes with one customer," Roberts said. "But we plan on moving upscale, and that's why the talks with Integralis have been so exciting."

With their options multiplying, VARs are rolling out managed security monitoring services to expand their revenue stream in the same way ramping up IT services compensated for falling hardware resale margins.

One such VAR, Microtech Information Systems, Rochester, N.Y., is currently in the process of completing its own network operations center (NOC) to act as a central command post for its growing menu of remote managed services, said Katie Brown, manager of channel relations at Microtech.

Microtech has grown from a single-location shop selling PCs and printers to a security-centric VAR offering a range of IT services that target vertical industries such as health care and education, Brown said.

Like many VARs, Microtech has seen the light when it comes to the value of offering remote monitoring, especially in the security realm. Brown and Microtech President John Gaudu both understand that offering security monitoring to their customers can deliver high-margin returns of 25 percent and above, sweeten their overall security portfolio, and ultimately create an avenue to routinely re-engage with customers by upgrading and upselling them into new products and services.

"It's one thing to say you are a security company and in some ways scare the client into protecting themselves by buying a firewall or antivirus setup. But it's a far better thing to provide the monitoring services to help your clients actually sleep better," Brown said.

As its NOC nears completion, Microtech just forged a partnership with remote monitoring vendor Klir Technologies, Seattle. Brown said Klir's Trusted Advisor Portal framework for remote network monitoring represents the first step in adding a full-blown security monitoring framework. Careful to choose the right security monitoring partner, Microtech is committing resources and time to its search and doesn't plan to cut corners or sacrifice quality just to make a bargain deal, Gaudu said.

Gaudu's advice to fellow VARs interested in deploying security monitoring is simple: "Target the highest-end monitoring product that fits your target market, and get to the highest level of vendor certification, because only then will you be able to charge sufficient dollars and get near that 25 percent return. Stay close to a vendor and keep a qualified staff," he said.

For Microtech and other solution providers like it, the number of available security monitoring options is on the rise.

SilverBack Technologies, N. Billerica, Mass., just kicked off an aggressive campaign to swell the ranks of channel partners reselling its security and network monitoring products. Adding a displacement strategy, SilverBack now offers a BuyBack program for VARs that may have begun building out monitoring offerings on other vendors' products.

Perimeter Internetworking, Milford, Conn., rolled out a new version of its "Security-in-the-Cloud" services that incorporates its Gateway 4.0 technology, which allows sophisticated remote monitoring ranging from network policy control to malware defense.

Redwood City, Calif.-based Postini is also adding to the mix with new products that utilize the vendor's patented managed services technology, preEMPT, which eliminates spam and viruses, stops DOS attacks, and safeguards content.

In March, LPI Level Platforms, an Ottawa-based discount MSP enabler for the channel, added more granular security monitoring to its flagship Managed Workplace. The newest version, 4.0, adds monitoring and alerting systems for firewalls, intrusion-detection devices, antivirus, and tighter integration with Windows security tools.

Another Ottawa-based provider of monitoring services to the channel, N-able Technologies, in April launched N-able OnDemand integrated IT service automation tools that monitor and manage network and security infrastructures in realtime, while providing proactive remediation.

Also thickening the plot is Integralis, which this week launched a new release of its Security Intelligence and Risk Engine. Integralis wants its own U.S. reseller channel and is currently looking to hire an executive director of channels by the end of June, Wagg said. In creating its own channel, Integralis could find itself potentially competing with some of the very vendors it supports, he conceded.

"It's something we are aware of, and we don't want to create any channel conflict," Wagg said. "We do plan to have a partner program, though, for resellers who get Integralis-certified. And it will be a single-tier program. Every partner will be top-tier."

Roberts said part of McAfee's discussions with Integralis are about how to avoid facing off against one another in the channel.

As security monitoring offerings multiply, the end result should be a win for the channel, said Konstantin Vilk, managing consultant at I-Span Services, a full-service VAR in San Francisco that has been in the security monitoring game since its inception a few years ago.

I-Span's security monitoring services generally account for as much as 20 percent to 30 percent of the VAR's total revenue, said Vilk, who added that in some cases I-Span will use monitoring as a "free" perk buried in the cost of a broad solution sale that includes a profitable service-level agreement maintenance contract.

Vilk noted that an increasing number of small businesses are actively seeking security monitoring services. "Small businesses more and more ask us if it's possible, before we even have a chance to say we offer the service. That's an important trend—that they are aware," he said.

"And can monitoring add upsell potential? Absolutely," Vilk said. "We have been able to get back into clients we haven't done work with in awhile by offering monitoring services, and then offering them bigger and better things as well."