Start-Up Brings International Viewpoint To U.S. Security Market

4FrontSecurity, based here, was launched earlier this year by a small group of consultants with global IT experience.

Christopher Parker, co-founder and CEO of 4FrontSecurity, has 25 years of experience in sales, management, marketing and business development in Europe and Asia-Pacific. Most recently, he was the CEO of Saztec International, a Boston-based company specializing in database design, construction and maintenance.

Co-founder and Chief Security Officer Steve Crutchley has more than 30 years of experience and has helped deploy secure IT systems in Europe, the Middle East and Africa. He previously was a founder and director of eTechSecurity, an IT security consultancy based in the Mideast.

In the United Kingdom and elsewhere outside the United States, companies put a higher priority on information security, and awareness is higher, Parker said, adding that 4FrontSecurity takes a business approach to the matter.

"We help organizations align their thinking on security from a business perspective rather than a technology perspective," he said.

The company's consulting services usually include assessing clients' security requirements and steering them through a plethora of products to help build the right protection for their organizations, executives said.

4FrontSecurity also focuses on building senior-level executives' security awareness. Other services include implementation of security technologies, network forensics and development of security policies.

Market-research firm IDC projects that the security services market will triple in size to $21 billion in 2005 from $6.7 billion in 2000.

But the trend in the security industry has been toward consolidation, not the formation of new companies, said analysts.

4FrontSecurity is daring to be different.

The timing's good to start a new company, despite the fact that the sluggish economy is putting a squeeze on IT spending, said Parker.

"If you launch when the market's up, you're battling everyone for space," he said. "It's a good time to launch now. The market's going to come back."