GE Access Offers Tools To Sell McAfee Intrusion Prevention

The Network Security Module helps solution providers learn about the current issues such as compliance and network challenges and offers several pre-built sales tools that speed the process for creating and submitting proposals to prospective customers.

GE Access was authorized in May as the first distributor to carry Santa Clara, Calif.-based McAfee's intrusion protection products IntruShield and Entercept solutions.

"It's very important for our company to be important in the SMB space and take our [intrustion protection] products to that market," said David Roberts, senior vice president of North America channel sales at Santa Clara, Calif.-based McAfee. "GE Access has 270 high-end VARs that have services capabilities to go out and get our products sold. We don't' have a professional services services organization at McAfee and we don't want one."

Solution providers should be able to make up to 15 percent margins on intrusion protection solutions, Roberts said.

Intrusion prevention solutions will offer significant opportunity for solution providers for the next several years, said Gene Hodges, president of McAfee, at GE Access's New Frontiers Conference in Keystone, Colo.

"Intrusion prevention capabilities will start to go everywhere. Anti-virus is morphing into IPS. Ant-virus by itself is obsolete. You need to start training your sales force and your technical staff to learn IPS," Hodges said. "If deployment patterns stay consistent, we'll have live IPS on 50 million devices by the end of 2005."

McAfee, formerly Network Associates International, picked up the intrusion prevention solutions when it purchased IntruVert Networks in May 2003.

GE Access, Westminster, Colo., now has 28 solution providers who have been approved to sell McAfee solutions, according to the company.

"McAfee is the next evolution of our security practice. We are focusing on more complex security software and this gives our partners a chance to move out of the commoditized security space. McAfee was a significant start for us," said Scott Zahl, vice president of marketing and vendor relations at GE Access.