HP Strikes Alliances To Bolster SMB Security Offerings

HP said it would start offering 60 days of free Symantec Norton Antivirus software updates on software reinstalled on new HP notebooks and desktop PCs, said Kevin Gilroy, HP's worldwide senior vice president and general manager, SMB segment.

"This builds on our strategy to build security into a broad portfolio of products," he said, noting that the HP security announcements help flesh out "a blueprint of security" for HP solution providers and SMB customers.

Additionally, Gilroy said HP is partnering with Trend Micro to offer a 90-day free license for the vendor's antivirus, anitspam, anti-spyware and e-mail filtering software on ProLiant servers bundled with Microsoft Small Business Server 2003. HP will also pre-load Sygate Security Agent 4.0 for HP Compaq t5710 thin clients beginning in January 2005, Gilroy said.

Gilroy said the new security features in HP products should give a boost to HP's SMB solution providers.

"It makes it easier to sell HP because a lot of this security is institutionalized and built into our product set, and it gives solution providers another topic of conversation to talk their SMB customers about," he said. "It's a conversation that must happen. They need to go deep [into security issues] and be the trusted advisor to their customers together with HP in providing the best security available."