McAfee Rolls Hardware Security Into Endpoint Suites

Gavin Struthers

McAfee worldwide channel chief Gavin Struthers

McAfee is bringing to the masses the hardware-based security products that have been the highlight of its acquisition by Intel with the launch of two new Endpoint Protection Suites that include the joint Intel/McAfee DeepSafe and DeepDefender technologies.

The company announced that it’s paring its Endpoint Protection Suite from nine SKUs down to four, retaining the basic Endpoint Protection suite and Endpoint Protection Advanced suite that adds cross-platform security and its realtime ePolicy Orchtestrator, while introducing two new top-of-the-line suites, Complete Endpoint Protection Business for businesses below 1,000 seats, and Endpoint Protection Enterprise for businesses above 1,000 seats.

Gavin Struthers, senior vice president of channel sales for McAfee, said the two new suites will make the company’s most advanced technologies available to far more customers by dramatically decreasing the cost to get DeepSafe installed.

“The reality is that most customer don’t have a lot of money to spend, so it becomes a matter of how you get more layers of protection without squeezing harder for money,” Struthers said.

In many ways it’s the grand debut for the hardware-assisted security that McAfee has developed with its chipmaker parent on the broader channel scene. While the security company has educated partners on the DeepSafe technologies, they’ve been a bit of a niche product. But their inclusion at the top end of the company’s lineup of endpoint suites mean more opportunities for the company’s partners to bring the technology to customers.

Along with the introduction of DeepSafe, the new Complete Endpoint Protection Suites also include the company’s Enterprise Mobility Manager to the mix, and boast significantly decreased install times. The company says customers wil have “base protection” with the suites in 20 to 30 minute, and “four-plus clicks” with the new suites.

When the company first introduced its Total Protection suites in 2006, Struthers said the company’s partners saw a boost in their McAfee-related revenues of about 20 percent. And he said he expects to see around the same level of boost with this year’s launch, as the new Complete Endpoint Protection suites “up the ante” on the products.

“We have 60 million nodes of Endpoint Protection in place,” Struthers noted. “That’s half a billion dollars of upgrade opportunity before we even look at displacements.”

That’s not to say McAfee isn’t eyeing displacements. Among its launch-related promotions, the company is running a $100 promotion for introducing its technology in a competitor’s customers, whether or not the partner closes the deal. Other promos around the launch include 10 percent additional margins on upgrades for incumbent partners, and significant boosts in the rewards the company offers partner salespeople for selling the suites. The company also announced that its “Accelerated Deal Registration” program for SMB customers has also been extended to enterprise customers. Under that program, the company guarantees response to partner deal registrations in four hours, although Struthers said the figure is usually more like two hours.

In support of the launch, the company has introduced a series of partner training offerings, marketing kits, sales playbooks, and even an iPad app to help partners position and sell the suites. All are available on the company’s partner portal.