20 Most Strategic Security Vendors

Security integrators surveyed recently for Everything Channel's 2008 State of Technology: Security study picked out the companies they consider to be their most strategic partners. Here are the top 20 vendors that made the cut.

Headquarters: Redmond, Wash.



Revenue in Most Recent Quarter: $15.84 billion (Q4, 2008)



Channel Chief: Allison Watson, corporate vice president, Worldwide Partner Group



Why It's a Strategic Security Partner: Given that so many security attacks are aimed at or come through the desktop, it's no wonder that the world's most dominant desktop operating system vendor is a key security player for many solution providers. Patch Tuesday has become a holiday of sorts, the one day every month when solution providers and IT professionals the world over know they're about to get their hands on the latest Microsoft security patches. Microsoft builds a variety of security-minded features into Windows and also boasts its own Microsoft Security Response Center, a research group that aims to identify and respond to Microsoft software security vulnerabilities. A whopping 40.88 percent of solution providers who identified a vendor as strategic selected Microsoft.

Headquarters: San Jose, Calif.



Revenue in Most Recent Quarter: $10.4 billion (Q4, 2008)



Channel Chief: Keith Goodwin, senior vice president, worldwide channels



Why It's a Strategic Security Partner: Cisco's security portfolio runs the gamut from firewalls and VPNs to intrusion prevention, including the e-mail and Web security products it picked up via it's $830 million acquisition of IronPort Systems in 2007. When you take all of that technology and start integrating it into Cisco's market-leading routers and switches, its no wonder 27.67 percent of solution providers who identified a vendor as a strategic partner picked Cisco.

Headquarters: Cupertino, Calif.



Revenue in Most Recent Quarter: $1.65 billion (Q1, 2009)



Channel Chief: Julie Parrish, vice president, global channel office



Why it's a Strategic Security Partner: One of the biggest names in security, Symantec boasts a broad portfolio of products. That lineup got even more expansive with its 2005 acquisition of storage vendor Veritas, a move that is enabling the vendor to integrate storage and security technologies in new ways. In addition to storage, Symantec has planted a flag in data loss prevention, one of the hottest areas of security, with it $350 million acquisition late in 2007 of Vontu. While some solution providers are still struggling to decipher Symantec's strategy around license renewals, 21.94 percent of solution providers that identified a strategic security partner selected Symantec.

Headquarters: Palo Alto, Calif.



Revenue in Most Recent Quarter: $28 billion (Q3, 2008)



Channel Chief: Adrian Jones, vice president and general manager, HP Solutions Partners Organization, Americas



Why It's a Strategic Security Partner: HP's Secure Advantage portfolio aims to provide end-to-end data protection from the desktop to the data center, encompassing everything from PC security tools to its ProCurve Network Access Control offering. Sprinkle in a variety of management and compliance tools to boot, and it's easy to see why 15.83 percent of solution providers that identified a vendor as a strategic partner picked HP.

Headquarters: Sunnyvale, Calif.



Revenue in Most Recent Quarter: $55.8 million (Q2, 2008)



Channel Chief: Marvin Blough, vice president, worldwide sales



Why It's a Strategic Security Partner: SonicWall is at the forefront of the SMB security market with a strong foothold with channel partners in that space. Now the company is also moving upstream to target the enterprise with new products such as its SonicWall E-Class product portfolio. Among solution providers that identified a strategic partner, 15.65 percent selected SonicWall.

Headquarters: Redwood Shores, Calif.



Revenue In Most Recent Quarter: $5.33 billion (Q1, 2009)



Channel Chief: John Gray, group vice president of North American sales technology alliances



Why It's a Strategic Security Partner: Oracle is one of the leading players in the database security space, meaning if you want to safeguard data where it lives, Oracle just might have the access control, encryption or data masking tool you need. Among solution providers that identified a vendor as a strategic partner, 11.76 percent selected Oracle.

Headquarters: Tokyo



Revenue In Most Recent Quarter: $249 million (Q2, 2008)



Why It's a Strategic Partner: Trend Micro has been making tremendous strides in the channel lately, including it's recent win as Company of the Year in network security software in the 2008 VARBusiness Annual Report Card. Solution providers just learned that channel chief Nancy Reynolds will be leaving the company at the end of this quarter to take a post at Palo Alto Networks, so partners will be watching to see how the company moves forward with its channel strategy. Among solution providers that identified a vendor as a strategic partner, 11.27 selected Trend Micro.

Headquarters: Orlando, Fla.



Revenue in Most Recent Quarter: Not available



Channel Chief: Rick Carlson, managing director for North America



Why It's a Strategic Security Partner: With its AVG Internet Security product, AVG is zeroing in on providing antivirus, antispyware, antispam and firewall for SMB Windows users. Among solution providers that identified a vendor as a strategic partner, 11.11 percent selected AVG.

Headquarters: Armonk, N.Y.



Revenue in Most Recent Quarter: $26.82 billion (Q2, 2008)



Channel Chief: Richard Hume, general manager of global business partner



Why It's a Strategic Security Partner: IBM's security portfolio includes access control, identity management and security compliance and vulnerability management software from its Tivoli lineup as well as e-mail security via its IBM Internet Security Systems offerings. Among solution providers that identified a vendor as a strategic partner, 10.83 percent selected IBM.

Headquarters: Redwood City, Calif.



Revenue In Most Recent Quarter: $199.6 million (Q2, 2008)



Channel Chief: Amnon Bar-Lev, vice president of global field operations



Why It's a Strategic Partner: Check Point is a stalwart player in the firewall and VPN space, but it's also setting its sites on new technology areas such as security virtualization and endpoint security, where it recently introduced a new single-agent offering. Among solution providers that identified a vendor as a strategic partner, 10.4 percent selected Check Point.

Headquarters: Santa Clara, Calif.



Revenue In Most Recent Quarter: $396.8 million (Q2, 2008)



Channel Chief: Roger King, vice president of worldwide channel operations



Why It's a Strategic Partner: McAfee offers a broad array of security products ranging from the consumer space all the way up to large enterprises. The security vendor has also been working to bring enhanced margin incentives such as deal registration and rebates to the channel. Among solution providers that identified a vendor as a strategic partner, 10.07 percent selected McAfee.

Headquarters: Islandia, N.Y.



Revenue in Most Recent Quarter: $1.09 billion (Q1, 2009)



Channel Chief: Bill Lipsin, corporate senior vice president of global channels



Why It's a Strategic Security Partner: CA plays across multiple security management areas, including identity and access management, security information management, threat management and mainframe security. Among solution providers that identified a vendor as a strategic partner, 8 percent selected CA.

Headquarters: Hopkinton, Mass.



Revenue in Most Recent Quarter: $3.67 billion (Q2, 2008)



Channel Chief: Mitch Breen, senior vice president global channel strategy and sales



Why It's a Strategic Security Partner: EMC's portfolio of Documentum enterprise content management offerings play in the compliance management space, ensuring that customers can share sensitive information without violating security regulations. EMC also boasts its RSA security division, which also made the list of 20 Most Strategic Security Vendors. Among solution providers that identified a vendor as a strategic partner, 7.69 percent selected EMC.

Headquarters: Waltham, Mass.



Revenue In Most Recent Quarter: $245.2 million (Q3, 2008)



Channel Chief: Javier Colado, general manager, partners



Why It's a Strategic Partner: Novell's lineup of identity and security management products, including Identity Manger, Sentinel, Access Manager and SecureLogin, was recently positioned in the leaders quadrant of Gartner's Magic Quadrant for User Provisioning. Among solution providers that identified a vendor as a strategic partner, 7.44 percent selected Novell.

Headquarters: Fort Lauderdale, Fla.



Revenue In Most Recent Quarter: $391.7 million (Q2, 2008)



Channel Chief: Al Monserrat, vice president of worldwide channels and emerging product sales



Why It's a Strategic Security Partner: Citrix's software portfolio includes SSL VPN technology as well as is Citrix Application Firewall, a product that aims to protect Web applications from buffer overflow exploits, SQL injection attacks, cross-site scripting attacks and the like. Among solution providers that identified a vendor as a strategic partner, 7.38 percent selected Citrix.

Headquarters: Campbell, Calif.



Revenue in Most Recent Quarter: Not available



Channel Chief: Ezra Hookano, vice president of sales, North America



Why It's a Strategic Security Partner: Barracuda offers targeted solutions for e-mail and Web security, including spam filters, Web filters and IM firewalls. Among solution providers that identified a vendor as a strategic partner, 6.67 percent selected Barracuda.

Headquarters: Mountain View, Calif.



Revenue in Most Recent Quarter: $303.2 million (Q2, 2008)



Channel Chief: John Jacob, vice president of global channels



Why It's a Strategic Security Vendor: VeriSign provides a variety of Web security offerings, including SSL certificates, identity and authentication services, domain name services and content and messaging services. Among solution providers that identified a vendor as a strategic partner, 6.45 percent selected VeriSign.

Headquarters: Seattle, Wash.



Revenue In Most Recent Quarter: Not available

Channel Chief: Mark Romano, Global Director of Channel Marketing



Why It's a Strategic Vendor: WatchGuard has a strong play in the perimeter security space, one of the hot technologies in the midmarket sector right now. Among solution providers that identifed a vendor as a strategic partner, 6.45 percent selected WatchGuard.

Headquarters: Bedford, Mass.



Revenue In Most Recent Quarter: $144 million (Q2, 2008)



Channel Chief: Michael Ross, area vice president, Americas channel



Why It's a Strategic Security Partner: RSA recently launched RSA enVision, a security information and event management solution through the channel and is also targeting hot areas such as compliance and Payment Card Industry solutions. Among solution providers that identified a vendor as a strategic partner, 6.31 percent selected RSA.

Headquarters: Santa Clara, Calif.



Revenue In Most Recent Quarter: $3.78 billion (Q4, 2008)

Channel Chief: Tom Wagner, VP, Americas Region, Partner Sales Organization

Why It's a Strategic Security Vendor: Sun offers a full lineup of identity management products, including Sun OpenSSO Express, an open-source offering. Among solution providers that identified a vendor as a strategic partner, 6.19 percent selected Sun.