Security vendor Avast has announced a new partnership with printer solutions vendor KYOCERA Document Solutions Canada, which becomes a certified Avast Elite Channel Partner. It will see Avast’s endpoint security solutions and managed IT services sold to KYOCERA Document Solutions’ Canadian customers, and made available to the company’s channel.

The deal, which applies only to Canada, and lasts for three years, is a significant one for both sides.

“There have been conversations about extending this into the U.S. market, but this relationship applies only to Canada,” said Sean Sykes, Managing Director, AVG Business by Avast. “It’s a program they have spent a lot of time talking with us about. It’s a focal point of their business, and will extend the services they are providing. They made a significant investment of time and personnel to customize this and roll it out to both their direct customers and their dealers in the second quarter.”

KYOCERA Document Solutions was formerly known as KYOCERA Mita. Their Canadian channel approaches 200 partners.

“They are strong nationally in Canada, especially in government, education and health care,” Sykes said. “They have a focus on the SMB.”

Sykes said that the large cybersecurity network created by the amalgamation of Avast and AVG was critical in making this partnership possible.

“With the acquisition, we now have 400 million endpoints globally, making us the largest cybersecurity network,” he said. “That gives us the capability to quickly identify a broad range of threats. That was one of the attractions for KYOCERA Document Solutions. They were looking for a thought leader who could confidently deliver.”

The AVG Business managed IT services portfolio was one of the reasons that Avast bought AVG, as it was much larger than Avast’s legacy business portfolio. Managed Workplace and CloudCare are two core RMM [remote monitoring and management] offerings, along with the endpoint security services, and are supported by further services and by help desk and technical support.

“Our unique ability to provide both antivirus protection and network management enables us to supply a strong managed security service,” Sykes said.

“In addition to the endpoint and RMM offerings, we will be providing additional services like online backup, which we offer through a third party,” he added. “Backup has become an increasingly important aspect of security because of the growth of ransomware, and the need to be able to return to a point before the ransomware infection. We are also combatting ransomware by identifying processes and best practices allow us to operate in a more secure way.”

In addition to providing KYOCERA Document Solutions with the endpoint and RMM solutions to build, standardize and automate a managed security program for its dealer network, Avast will also provide technical training and support from its sales engineers, counsel and guidance on go-to-market strategy, and access to marketing resources.

“We are very excited about this relationship,” Sykes said. “Our Canadian business has been growing quite rapidly. We anticipate that the KYOCERA Document Solutions business will grow very rapidly over time and could become a healthy portion of our Canadian business. However, because the rest of our business continues to grow rapidly, we think it will take a bit of time for this to happen.”