CacheFlow Floats Web Security Strategy

The company's Partner Alliance Program features a two-tier structure and offers leads, training and co-marketing assistance.

The program marks another step in the company's evolution. The vendor, based here, was founded in 1996 to make Web acceleration appliances.

Earlier this year, CacheFlow announced that it planned to focus on security and unveiled Security Gateway, which provides content-level security and control.

"It plugs the holes in the security infrastructure and scales what you've already got," said Charles Dauber, CacheFlow's vice president of marketing.

Many new cyberattacks are passing through the firewall on Port 80, which Web traffic flows on, Dauber said.

"That's the door in the enterprise security infrastructure that's still open and one that hackers are using," he said.

Security Gateway scans HTTP traffic for viruses, malicious code or inappropriate content and deletes that material. The device interoperates with virus-scanning solutions from Trend Micro and Symantec. CacheFlow has partnerships with Websense and Secure Computing for URL filtering.

Dauber said the appliance, which has a proprietary operating system, acts as a coordination point for the various security technologies while at the same time accelerating content flow.

"We provide all that good security, but we actually make the network run faster," he said.

Bret Jackson, vice president of sales at solution provider SDT Network Products, Englewood, Colo., said clients are expressing a lot of interest in Security Gateway.

"It's been an absolutely phenomenal product in terms of what the market needs and what I feel the market has been asking for," he said.

The caching product that CacheFlow previously offered "was kind of a nice-to-have product as opposed to a need-to-have product," he said. "But now the tune we're getting from customers is it's [Security Gateway something that they can't live without."

The appliance eliminates the delays traditionally associated with virus scanning, he added.

The product is designed to fit in with other security components, such as firewalls and intrusion detection, said Dianne Ferry, senior channel marketing manager at CacheFlow. The device also provides service opportunities, such as installation and configuration, Internet-usage evaluations and customized reports.

With the release of Security Gateway, CacheFlow has shifted to a 100 percent indirect model, Dauber said.

In North America, CacheFlow has an exclusive partnership with Westcon. The company's new channel program has two levels: authorized partners, which are product-focused, and premier partners, which are security-focused and can provide their own services.

Premier partners have priority on lead sharing and co-marketing assistance and are required to have two people technically certified by CacheFlow per region. Both partner levels get discounts on demos, regular sales and technical news updates and joint sales calls with CacheFlow account managers.

"We're looking to do more than hand out leads," Ferry said. "We'll work with partners to develop leads."

Steve Martinez, owner and president of RazorLine Technologies, a solution provider in Lenexa, Kan., said CacheFlow's leads have been lucrative, as opposed to the cold leads offered by some vendors.

"We're a midsize company. There are definitely some other big fish in the pond, but we're treated on an equal playing field with those guys [CacheFlow," he said. "We get as many leads [and as much attention as we want."