Kaspersky To Launch Hosted Services, Enterprise Mac Security

In a presentation during the Kaspersky Lab Partner Conference Friday, held in Punta Cana, Dominican Republic, Keith Maskell, Kaspersky Lab vice president of corporate business, said that the company planned to launch new hosted services, new versions of its Administration Kit and an impending enterprise security product for the Mac, as the company makes further inroads into the mid-market and enterprise space in 2010.

Kicking off the presentation, Maskell said that Kaspersky Lab will be releasing trial sales of its hosted security services this spring, with a global launch scheduled in September. The company will unveil a hosted product for SMB by 2011 and then scale upwards for larger companies and governments following the SMB launch.

Maskell added that the new SaaS offerings would be developed with a channel-friendly model for distribution.

In October of 2009, Kaspersky launched what it called Kaspersky Open Space Security, incorporating a newly renovated management console, Kaspersky Administration Kit 8.0, touting greater visibility and control, and full compatibility with Windows 7. The package included Kaspersky Anti-Virus for Windows Workstations 6.0 Release 2, a malware security product designed to block and remove endpoint security threats, as well as Kaspersky Anti-Virus for Windows Fileservers 6.0 Release 2, offering security protection for servers, along with performance enhancements and compatibility with new Windows server platforms.

"This is a big step forward for us," Maskell said. "All it boils down to is a much higher level of protection and a much simpler system to administer."

Later in 2010, Kaspersky will be releasing its Version 9 of its Administration Kit, which, among other things, will distinguish itself in the market with increased interoperability across a wide array of platforms, Maskell said.

"We fully understand that many, many customers want to use a multivendor approach to IT strategy. We want to avoid a single point of failure," he said. "This is a key strategy for us."

The company will also be rolling out a version of its corporate Mac security product, slated for release some time during the third quarter, executives said. Maskell emphasized that the Mac release was increasingly important tool for resellers, as more enterprise organizations adopt Macs into their IT environment.

"That will be a key tool, and provide lead products that you can use to penetrate into larger accounts," he said.