CylancePROTECT Home Edition will eventually be marketed broadly online to consumers, but their initial launch is focused on their commercial channel, to sell along with the commercial product for employee home use.

Last week, Cylance announced the first stage of availability for its CylancePROTECT Home Edition, which takes the company’s AI-driven CylancePROTECT offering to the consumer market. The announcement was no surprise. Cylance telegraphed this was coming back in March when they hired Christopher Bray from Symantec Norton to launch their consumer division. Exactly how this will go to market wasn’t clear however. Cylance will begin selling this through the channel, with the principal target being the home systems of their customers’ employees.

“We have over 6000 customers now,” said May Mitchell, Vice President Worldwide Field and Channel Marketing at Cylance. “They are aware, statistically, that their employees blend home and work systems, doing work at home. How does company get control of those home-based devices to protect company-sensitive information? We are responding to this with CylancePROTECT Home Edition – a lightweight version of CylancePROTECT that is not managed by the company. It supports up to ten devices for home usage.”

When Bray was hired in March, Cylance announced the consumer product would roll out in 2018, but they have moved that up.

“We accelerated it because strong demand was coming from our enterprise customers, asking for a Home Edition version,” said Hiep Dang, Director of Product Management at Cylance. “They know that their people access work data from personal devices.”

The company had always intended to cover the consumer space.

“The leading cofounders came from McAfee, and their premise was – how do we fix customer problems with modern malware from so many vectors that it has become impossible to determine all the different attributes with signatures,” Mitchell said. “A better way was the concept of prediction and prevention of malware.”

“The founders had been frustrated at McAfee, always having to apologize for the product and the inability to keep up with signatures,” Dang said. “At first, the plan was to do a consumer product, but they found that developing brand recognition would be too expensive. They pivoted to the enterprise space because their names were recognized there.”

Dang said that the consumer market still has all the same weaknesses, aggravated by the malware becoming more dangerous.

“The consumer market is ripe for disruption,” he said. “This is the first step in our strategy for consumer – filling the home user demand for enterprise customers. The ultimate goal is to protect every computer under the sun, so we will continue to expand and make it available to the general public.”

Starting with the focus on home users of their commercial customers allows Cylance to provide an opportunity for their commercial channel.

“We are committed to a go-to-market through partners, and are 100 per cent channel-focused,” Mitchell said. “Only a global distribution strategy can help us scale. This includes strategic relationships, such as with Dell, as well as national and regional security partners. We are also ramping up a MSSP go-to-market strategy.”

Dang said that selling the consumer product through the channel provides partners with more revenue as part of the same deals they do now.

“They can sell it as an add-on with the regular commercial product,” he said. “It’s a fantastic way to build on the customer’s loyalty. It can generate new business revenue through services and education as well as the product.”

Mitchell, who has been travelling on a ransomware road show, said that many partners have discussed the home product with her on the tour, and the response has been good.

“I’ve spoken with many partners about the launch while on the road,” she said. “Every single partner who has already been successful with Cylance was very positive. Last night in Boston, a reseller said ‘I wish I could offer my father something like this.’”

When the Home Product is marketed more broadly, it will be sold only online, not through a retail channel.

“It will be online distribution only,” Dang said. “We will not do brick and mortar. It’s a losing proposition. The cost in getting onto a shelf is cost-prohibitive. We think we have built up good visibility among consumers over the last couple of years, especially with all our advertising in airports. We know we still have a way to go there though, and you will see more visibility from us in the consumer space.”