Good morning! Liveblogging from Grand Velas Resort in Riviera Maya, Mexico, the scene of Kaspersky’s 2011 Americas Partner Conference.

Kicking off the festivities is Kaspersky Chief Operating Officer Eugene Buyakin. Looks like it’ll be a Q&A session with event host Jim Connelly.

Asked what inspirsed the company, Buyakin says “Fighting the good fight” – describes the well-being of the Internet as “our social mission.”

Asked what inspires the company, Buyakin says “fighting the good fight” – describes the well-being of the Internet as “our social mission.”

Buyakin on competiton: “We like being up against strong rivals. We like out-performing the competition.”

Off to a video with customers talking about their security challenges — talking about centralized management, centralized licensing, problems with users not being updated, etc.

Customer in the video talking about how Kaspersky covers all of its Windows servers, as well as Mac, Linux… and Novell NetWare. He expresses surprise that most modern AV packages don’t cover NetWare.

Buyakin: 2010 estimated results – Revenues up 28 per cent, profits up 18 per cent “We’re very happy we outperformed the industry.”

Targets similar growth for 2011 – goal is $750 million.

Marketshare growth is a goal for Buyakin — 4.2 per cent in 2008, 5.8 per cent in 2009, estimates 2010 will come in at 7.5 per cent. (2008 and 2009 figures are official per IDC.”

“2010 was the most successful year in the company’s history,” Buyakin says.

Buyakin’s going numbers-heavy here — talking about brand recognition — up from 53 to 58 per cent with consumers, 57 per cent to 61 per cent with corporate clients.

Brand Awareness in Canada up from 21 per cent to 25 per cent, well ahead of US (12% to 16%). Brazil jumps 32 per cent to 47 per cent, and Mexico goes from 51 per cent to 53 per cent.

2011 goals: To be the #3 player in security in all segments by the end of 2011 – Buyakin says the company has been investing heavily in product development for several years, believes this will be the year it sees the results of those investments.

Buyakin believes Kaspersky well positioned in the consumerized IT market due to its own strength in the consumer side.

Buyakin says Kaspersky started “investment in cloud technology before the word was created,” believes that it will be the way of security in the future.

John Bernstein of General Atlantic joins Buyakin on stage to discuss the firm’s investment in Kaspersky a couple of weeks ago.

Bernstein says Kaspersky’s channel is a differentiator for it, as well as its management team. “We liked Kaspesky because of its breadth of technology, its partner network and its growth profile. We think it’s a real global market leader.”

Buyakin: Industry is changing rapidly, so companies need a different level of strategic thinking. That’s where General Atlantic comes in. “We work with industry leaders and we need to be part of that community.”

Kaspresky’s growth to date has been all organic, but Buyakin suggests that the investment from General Atlantic will help it get into acquisitions should one make sense.

Buyakin: Partners are our guardians of our approach — he believes the channel will keep Kaspersky on its current track regardless of how big it gets along the way.

Steve Orenberg, president for the Americas, is out next to provide a more local perspective.

Orenberg said Americas booking grew 60 per cent 2010 over 2009, a year that saw 100 per cent bookings growth itself. “It wasn’t easy, but we did it. We got our goal.”

Orenberg: Kaspersky didn’t look at retail as a real profit opportunity when it got into it, but rather as a way to build brand awareness — lots of brand talk again this year at C3.

North American retail sales per NPD — Kaspersky saw 165 per cent growth – from 1.8 million units to 4.8 million units. “Our goal was 167 per cent,” he quips.

Orenberg pumps up CRN’s Annual Report Card awards. CRN seucrity beat reporter Andrew Hickey (sitting two seats over) must be happy.

C3 attendance this year is up about 40 per cent in partner attendance over last year’s even in Punta Cana, DR.

Orenberg getting into the meaning of the C3 brand for this event — it’s Collaboration, Commitment and Community, for the record.

Orenberg addressing the potential of the General Atlantic investment leading to IPO: Wants investors that accept the whole culture… there have been many conversations, but GA is the first be a real match. “We look at them as a partner to the company.”

He says nothing is going to change as a result of GA’s investment — pledges to remain 100 per cent channel, partners will own the customer and renewals, customers will keep getting renewal margins, will not overdistribute the product.

Orenberg takes a swipe at competitors showing their commitment to the channel by “signing up 5,000 new partners.”

Side note: Aside from saying nothing would change and reiterating that the company will stay committed to its partner, Orenberg never really addressed what an IPO would mean for Kaspersky.

Orenberg on community being from the top down: “How many of you have smoked a cigar with Steve Ballmer? Walked on the beach with Enrique Salem?” Touches on a great strength of Eugene Kaspersky as a networker.

And speaking of Eugene, here he comes, decked out in a race car driver’s uniform.

“Buenos morning, senoras and gentlemen,” Kaspersky greets the conference.

Kaspersky touches on sponsoring the Ferrari Racing team: “Company’s growing and looking for some very unique projects to build our brand.” Talks about sponsoring Ausie Rules Football, the South Pole expedition featured at last year’s C3.

Kaspersky likes “sexy projects” when it comes to sponsorship, and Formula 1 fits that bill.

Taking some customer questions via video. Hopefully he also takes some live questions from partners.

One word to up Kaspersky?  Eugene touches on the FAMILIA concept, and then jokes “Mafia.” He prefers two words – business and fun. “Shake but don’t mix.”

One thing to rid the world of cybercime? Kaspersky says he wants a big red button with “stop cyberthreats” written on it. “But that would do a lot of damage to my and your business.” Still, says he’d push it. “We’d develop a new company — new busines, but the same people, the same partners, the same mafia.”

Does cybercrime ever end? “Criminals are criminals, they re-generate. It’s not possible to stop them.” Likens stopping cybercrime to stopping football hooligans – you have to either get rid of football or get rid of humans. “But if you listen to Hollywood, the end of cybercrime is in December 2012.” Apropos comment from here in Mexico.

What about Stuxnet? Says he’s been waiting for that kind of attack for many years, waiting for governments “or anti-governments” to use malware against some critical infrastructure elements. “It’s a turning point. After Stuxnet, we will ‘enjoy’ malware that’s not criminals, not hooligans, but targeting power plants, transportation.”

Kaspersky calls it the third era of malware. Cyber-hooligans first, cyber-crime second, and now cyber-war.

Kaspersky calls building the company the biggest adventure of his life, along with fighting cyber crime and “our lovely competitors.” Also touches on the Antarctic expedition and Ferrari. “The right answer is, I don’t know.”

Things he always travels with: Passport, credit card and crypto-token to access the corporate network. “The rest I can buy, because I have my credit card.”

Getting more and more personal with the questions here. Eugene’s favorite place is “Business class, Cathay Pacfiic Airlines.” Says he’s uncomfortable in First Class… just too much service. Jokes that he spends so much time in planes because he loves business class so much.

And final question: Who would he most like to have dinner with? Kaspersky goes for the cheap crowd pop by saying “All of you, tonight.”

And we’re taking about a 20 minute break. Putting the liveblog on hold… and we’ll see you in a few.

And we’re back. Seems like there’s going to be some sort of Kaspersky Performance Challenge. This one involves cans of Sprite and what appears to be french fries.

And one of the competitors is CDN editor Paolo Del Nibletto. I sense blackmail material.

Okay… not french fries. Elastic bands. It’s a band-flinging rapidfire competition.

The Kaspersky Threatpost team out next to discuss trends in technology threats. Up first… mobility, one of the hottest topics in security right now.

Fabio Assolini says Kaspersky expecting more attacks against Android in 2011, after phishing attempts on Brazilian banks last year.

Threatpost editors suggest there’s too much trust in App Stores — many of the vulnerabilities are coming in from “mobile application ecosystems,” says Threatpost’s Paul Roberts.

“Apple and Google have very healthy applicaiton ecosystems, and we as users love that. But there’s an implicit trust … that it’s got to be okay, and that’s not always true,” Roberts says. Third-party app marketplaces are “even more shady.”

On to the topic of Stuxnet and Aurora and other big espionage-based blended threats. Baumgartner dissecting Aurora in particular, and the timing of it during a hoiiday when more system admins would be away. “There’s more to come,” he says.

Fisher says Stuxnet wasn’t the first state-sponsored attack, but was was different was that it turned up in the media — a failure because it means the attack got noticed. “It does seem to be a turning point – pre-Stuxnet there was talk of military action to stop Iran’s uranium-enrichment program, but they achieved a better end with a piece of malware,” he says. Suggests that governments around the world are going to look at malware as a better option than before as result of Stuxnet’s success.

Addressing how SMB is more vulnerable than enterprises because of fewer security resources, outsourcing their IT, in front of an audience of partners, but not really getting into the role partners can play in helping to close that gap, or how what they do to help close that gap may change in the face of an evolving threatscape. Great conversation, but seems more targeted at end users, who aren’t the audience in the room here.

Baumgartner says he himself had his identity swiped to the tune of $30,000 on his credit cards.

Roberts: Small businesses are a target — Fewer security resources than the enterprise, but access to more assets than the average consumer.

Next up, Keith Maskell, who heads up the corporate business for Kaspersky to talk about the company’s product roadmap and strategy.

“Within security strategy, have an anti-malware strategy,” Maskell says. He objects to the idea that anti-malware has been commoditized. More attacks makes it relevant he says. “Businesses and governments are waking up and realizing they have to have an anti-malware strategy.”

Why anti-malware approach? In all attacks – endpoint, mail, Web, server — malware is the common denominator, Maskell says. 

His pitch – lowest total cost of protection, which includes reducing IT resources to support, less impact on system resources and performance. “How much is the overhead, and how much does it cost you to have it?” Running on lesser resources means older machines stay useful longer, he says. Plus productivity hits on things like opening files attached to e-mail.

Still on Maskell’s to-do list for protection — Routers, switches and firewalls, VPN, logs and more complete management.

Maskell says Kaspersky’s “going to work more and more” on its Administration Kit, which currently manages users from 10 seats to a million. It also offers a service provider edition for those offering security as a managed service.

“We were very modest about this product last year, but we’ve got 45 test deployments worldwide, and we’re getting very excited about it,” he says of the admin kit for service providers.

Maskell previewing Endpoint version 8, which debuts later this year. Along with an updated AV engine, it will add vulnerability assessment and patch delivery built in. Host IPS, support for protecting vritual machines, Web control, control of USB and other removable devices.

And we’re back for the afternoon sessions, which will focus on marketing, brand and… it would appear… channel programs. But first, a little customer video action.

Wilson detailing branding changes over the last year — slightly revised logo, new packaging and messaging for both B2B and B2C.

“We’re not going to become another big, bland US corporation” with no distinguishing features, Wilson says. Would be kinda hard to do that with Eugene Kaspersky at the helm, I think.

Most great brands have been built in B2C and then transposed into B2B, Wilson asserts. “Once we get over that 50 per cent market [in terms of brand awareness] then we’ll really be on the shopping list for B2B.”

Kaspersky and partners have work to do to ‘get on the list.” Wilson says Kaspersky is vendor of choice for 41 per cent of enterprise worldwide, but only 14 per cent in the SMB/enterprise space in Canada — slightly higher in the U.S., but still less than 20 per cent.

Wilson promises “a much better Web site” to come from Kaspersky, including more lead generation opportunities for the company’s solution providers.

Drawas going through the plan for the combined Anti-Malware Protection System, announced last fall. In case you need a refresher on that, here are Kevin Krempulec’s thoughts on that: https://channelbuzz.ca/2010/11/kaspersky-launches-anti-malware-protection-system-490/

Drawas: The company’s Threatpost “corporate journalism” site now gets 250k+ page views from 125k+ unique visitors, 100 per cent growth year-on-year.

Drawas detailing how Kaspersky uses its Spotlight Series of mailings to generate leads, as well as content syndication from Threatpost to partner Web sites — something that was announced at least year’s show. Forty per cent of the company’s top-level partners are today using that syndicated content, he says.

Drawas: “There’s a mismatch” for the smallest of businesses – either using consumer-grade software or underusing corporate stuff. The solution: KSOS – Kaspersky Small Office Security. “It’s ideal for businesses like a small accounting office, real estate office, anywhere there’s a small office, we’ve got a solution for this very underserved market.”

KSOS supports up to 10 PCs and 2 servers – does encrypted data protection – includes employee Web use control, centralized management.

KSOS available in the channel before the end of this quarter, Drawas announces. And now onto details of the consumer product, Pure Total Security, a few weeks ago.

Drawas: Going after the family market within the consumer space will pay off for Kaspersky. “We think that by having a broader selection of products for the consumer market will help drive awareness for the corporate market as well.”

Drawas says (per NPD) Kaspersky #1 retail software seller — more than World of Warcraft.

Drawas outlining a new North American campaign – starting with the US – focusing on ideas like fighting back, parents being able to protect kids online. “This isn’t about fear-mongering, it’s about empowerment.”

Drawas says Kaspersky’s going to do TV ads in the US and Canada for the first time based on the new “It’s Time To Get Serious” campaign, accompanied by the company’s largest online advertising buy ever. “It’s an experiment for us.”

Mullen calls Gold and Platinum partners the company’s most important customers, and hands off to a partner testimonial video featuring Calgary’s ES Williams.

Detailing the Service Provider edition of the Admin Kit for managed services. The product will be available “fairly soon,” Mullen says. 

Changes in the channel approach in 2010: “2010 was extremely strategic for us,” Mullen says, with the launch of the new, tiered partner program at mid-year. Also deployed new channel management crew in North America and LatAm, tasked with managing top partners. “We want partners who will commit to and grow with Kaspersky.”

Mullen says new partner portal coming — a unified partner portal between North America and Latin America. Mullen says the portal is “piggybacking” on the unified partner portal approach the company has taken in Europe. “A single sign-on gateway to all the tools” from Kaspersky.

The company’s also launching – as of next Tuesday – its first Total Rewards program, a channel loyalty program.

Total Rewards features incentives through immediate cash rewards through a reloadable cash card for reseller reps, as well as channel loyalty efforts. The Total Rewards site will also feature the company’s sales tools and communications/marketing tools.

Channel maangers are giving partners a card good for $25 on the Total Rewards program the first time a reseller’s sales rep signs up for the program. Total Rewards will be open to all members of the Green Team partner program.

Reynolds starts off with a review of changes to the company’s partner organization in 2010.

Reynolds: The crowd here at C3 represents 6,000+ salespeople and 3,500+ technical resources. “This group in this room has the reach for Kaspersky, and are the ones who’ll help us build velocity.” Calls the group “the difference between incrementally good and exponentially good.”

Reynolds outlines a series of customer wins, including 11,000 nodes at the University of New Brunswick. “Every hour, we’re either replacing someone, or we’re being replaced,” she tells partners.

Segmented results for 2010 from Reynolds — North America saw 46 per cent growth in small-biz, 53 per cent in midmarket, 115 per cent growth in the all-important enterprise market. (Smart of them to define midmarket and small different based on different regions.)

2011 priorities – “Evolve into a business partnership. We’re going to sit down with our partners in their region, in their time zone, and have a business discussion.” Mutual business plans with partners. “Have to have plans that are reasonable, measurable and have a timeline.”

For 2011, focus on things that matter right now. “Everything else is stuff. We’re going to move the stuff off and focus on the things that matter to partners’ business and how they can continue to make money with Kaspersky.”

Reynolds talking up the company’s new Americas Partner Advisory Council members, “your voice back to Kaspersky management.” – Calls it an example of Kaspersky listening, letting partners guide it. “We’ve always a wildly successful company, and we want to make sure we don’t screw it up.”

Now Reynolds bringing up regional chiefs, including Americas channel chief Gary Abad and Kaspersky Canada boss Kevin Krempulec for panel discussion.

Dan Burke, head of corporate sales for the Americas thanks partners for doubling Kaspersky’s business in the enterprise in 2010, seeks to repeat that performance with another 100%+ growth year.

Some of his challenges: Lack of strong brand awareness – Burke expects the It’s Time to Get Serious campaign to help get past that. 

Next challenge: “Getting invited to the show.” “When we get to proof of concept, and the company decides to move off the incumbent, we win 80 per cent of those deals.” Credits partners with getting those — every big win in 2010 came from deal registration. 

Last challenge: Product portfolio — no encryption product, no DLP product. Those are on the way, but “we need to find ways to sell around that” in the meantime. Advises partners to do that by focusing on best-in-breed anti-malware, or get customers to move the buying timetable out. Also says Kaspersky will partner with other OEMs where it makes sense.

SMB sales director Mat Goulet says the company will roll out different strategies for three sub-groups of that segment. 21 million very small businesses in the Americas. Says KSOS will be a differentiator for the company there.

Small biz (sub-100) space will get more partner support. Leading with proof-of-concept in midmarket (100-1,500) space — POCs result in new customers 70 per cent of the time, Goulet says.

Canadian sales chief Kevin Krempulec details growth since the launch in December 2008. Priorities have been investing in feet on the street to support partners. “That investment in talent will continue throughout 2011.”

Three initiatives for 2011:

Optimization of the channel — Moving from recruitment to enabling existing partners. Says it’s very important to segment the market in Canada.

Enterprise — Use existing customers as case studies to drive success in their verticals.

Brand — Continue to drive the name of Kaspersky in the model. Even jokes about borrowing one of CMO Roger Wilson’s legendary jackets (see picture above) for Don Cherry on HNIC.

Burke is asked if Kaspersky will go direct to grow its enterprise section. Incrediously responds: “What is this? A Sophos conference?” (Bazinga!)

Krempulec on margins for partners: “One of the most critical, if not the most critical, things for partners.” Ways to grow margin include deal registration and account registration. Working to become more easy to work with.

Another opportunity — the managed service aspect of Service Provider Admin Kit. “I can certainly tell you there’s gold in those hills.”

Reynolds: “Healthy margins and healthy partners does not mean a lot of partners. Absolutely, less is more in 2011.”

And down the stretch we come for Kaspersky’s 2011 Sales Awards.

First up, the company’s Rising Star award for each region. Orenberg says it’s about quarter-over-quarter growth for partners.

For the U.S.: Novacoast.

For Canada: Metafore.

For Latin America:  Business Technologies.

Latin American distributor of the year goes to Adistec. “It’s very unusual and enlightening when a distributor is truly a partner to a company and not just a place to warehouse products,” Orenberg says.

Next up, National Partner of the Year awards.

LAR of the year for North America goes to CDW and CDW Canada.

North American VAR partner of the year goes to Cyber Advisors.

And finally, Latin American VAR partner of the year goes to GMS out of Ecuador.

And that brings our live coverage of the sessions this afternoon to an end. Thanks to everyone who joined us for our first liveblog here — I hope you enjoyed it and we look forward to doing this again in the very near future.

Look for full coverage from Kaspersky’s C3 conference here on ChannelBuzz.ca over the weekend and into the next week.

Good afternoon, everybody!