New HotBrick Firewall/VPN Wares Hit The Market For SMBs

Partners said HotBrick's products hit a price-point/functionality sweet spot for small and midsize businesses. The offerings,Firewall VPN 600 and Firewall VPN 1200,are dual WAN firewalls priced at $499 and $899, respectively.

"I'm finding the product very easy to sell to our SMB customers," said Gabby Herczeg, president of Internet solution provider Redundant Internet, Toronto. "Because of the product's failover capabilities, we advertise it to our customers as, 'Don't go down again.' "

Other features that make the HotBrick products an easy sell include an easy-to-configure firewall that allows customers to set up and install the firewall themselves and a simple VPN that doesn't require customers to pay for VPN licenses, Herczeg said.

HotBrick's products use a standard Microsoft VPN client that comes packaged with Windows 2000 and Windows XP, but competing products charge extra for VPN client licenses.

"The VPN license is an expensive hidden cost for small businesses," Herczeg said. "Customers have to buy licenses for each remote worker, and they end up getting hit up with a bill that costs more than the firewall."

Although October marked the official launch of the products, HotBrick has been recruiting VARs for some time, said Maurice Lopes, president and CEO of HotBrick, Miami. The vendor has signed up 120 resellers and is in negotiations with three unnamed international distributors and several retailers, Lopes said.

Customers can also buy a service to manage the firewall appliances for $39.95 a month. This monthly charge, which partners also have the ability to resell, entitles customers to realtime phone support, remote VPN configuration changes and software updates.