RSA Makes DLP Suite Available To Partners

Altogether, the newly available DLP suite, which incorporates Bedford, Mass.-based RSA's identity assurance, information protection and event management technologies, gives end user customers the ability to orchestrate data policy, discover and monitor sensitive data, and subsequently apply enforcement mechanisms.

The DLP suite, initially launched in April, is now extended to RSA partners who complete a certification and training process through the company's SecurWorld Partner Program. Specifically, the SecurWorld DLP program is designed to provide channel tools and resources, including marketing analyst reports, pre-sales support, implementation and post-sales support, as well as extensive sales technical training.

RSA execs say that the solution represents the company's overall expansion into the DLP market at a time when more customers are looking to consolidate point products and do business with fewer vendors.

"The next step is bringing things together on a common platform," said Christopher Young, senior vice president of RSA products, during his keynote speech Tuesday. "These (solutions) can really start to work together. They have to work together for our customers to have a good program around protecting sensitive information."

And lately, solutions around data protection have experienced explosive growth, execs say. Young added that DLP is growing at 31 percent year over year, while security event management was growing steadily at 25 percent year over year for the company.

Subsequently, the suite is positioned as the answer to increasing challenges faced by companies wanting to implement comprehensive data security solutions while meeting regulatory compliance objectives, such as the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard.

Young said that both of those IT objectives have and will fit into the overarching security strategy for many companies. During his speech, Young said that as enterprises expand IT infrastructure globally, they will increasingly find ways to implement more simplistic and affordable security models that meet the complex needs of the entire organization. "The business requirement around doing more with less is only going to become more acute," he said.

Partners maintain that the availability of the DLP suite is a logical extension of the company's products, which are primarily centered around data security. RSA solution providers contend that the space is growing fast. Partners said that the DLP suite will further enable them to provide numerous value added features and offer a greater breadth of data protection solutions under one roof to their customers. "It boils down to operational efficiency. People are tired of dealing with that and a lack of integration," said Dave Gilden, partner with Tampa, Fla.-based Acuity Solutions, adding that DLP is in the top five or six most profitable solutions for his company and is "trending up."

Another partner maintained that while DLP has been slow to take root in some market segments, the new suite will give him more opportunities to extend his service offerings and allow him to take more of a consulting role around the product, particularly around data classification.

"(Customers) don't have any idea how to classify data," said Michael Volk, chief operations officer with FishNet Security, based in Kansas City, Mo."They don't have standards or accepted practices. Today, it's totally the wild, wild west."