Symantec Endpoint Protection, which utilizes the technology Symantec acquired with Skycure last year, provides a differentiated offering for MSP line cards that detects and illustrates mobile threats to end users.
Ryan Walsh, Pax8’s chief channel officer
Cloud distributor Pax8 has announced it has rounded out its Symantec cloud-based SaaS offerings with the addition of Symantec Endpoint Protection Mobile. SEP Mobile provides protection for Android and iOS devices, with its key feature being in-depth threat intelligence that predicts and detects both existing and unknown threats on mobile devices.
“We have been with Symantec for a long time, and they were one of our first vendors,” said Ryan Walsh, Pax8’s chief channel officer. “SEP Mobile is a new offering for them. Their CEO, Greg Clark, has been acquiring companies since he came to Symantec with BlueCoat. Symantec acquired SkyCure last year, and have since been focused on integrating it.”
The SEP Mobile technology uses a layered approach that leverages extensive threat intelligence and both device- and server-based analysis, to protect against malware, network threats, and vulnerability exploits.
“This is a really innovative product, and its acquisition is, in my opinion, a reflection of Clark’s commitment to innovation,” Walsh said. “When Clark was introduced at a partner event we attended, I really got the vibe that he was committed to bringing back Symantec’s technology leadership and product leadership. Before Skycure was acquired, Gartner had them classified as an upper right quadrant technology, showing their product’s innovation. We are really happy to have it. It does some things we haven’t seen before.”
Walsh also emphasized that this is a product that demos extremely well.
“It’s amazing how scary the threats are, and how well this shows them,” he said. “The demo shows how a device you thought was secure can be easily infiltrated because you thought you were connecting to a safe wireless network. It shows all the mobile threats coming in through risky networking and leaky applications, and it shows all the information that can be extracted from phones. This is an awesome product, and it’s real topical to offer this on our line card.”
Walsh said that this is a valuable differentiation for their MSP partners.
“We are tracking a lot of our MSPs are morphing their managed services practice into an MSSP practice, and being able to know and show where the threat exposure is is very valuable for them,” he said. “If they want to be seen as a technology leader, they need to be known for staying in front of these evolving threats. We live in the the long tail of the SMB world, in which there are a lot people who think they don’t have a problem with security. The demo will scare customers out of that, and the product provides the visibility and production they need. It’s a really cool and unique product to add to an MSPs line card.”
Walsh also stressed how Pax8’s ability to get this kind of product out to their channel and effectively advocate on its behalf also shows how they can help their vendors.
“It demonstrates our value proposition to our vendors, and shows how we keep the messaging straight for the channel,” he said. “That’s particularly important for a vendor like Symantec, which still has good market share, but which had largely lost its reputation as a technology leader, and had suffered some from disorganization after the split with Veritas, complicated by issues like confusing naming conventions. We have had the benefit of enjoying consistency about who we dealt with at Symantec, and have had great alignment on the product side, and now the sales side, with them. We have very strong alignment with their channel teams, and have been able to keep a consistent presence in the channel community as a result. With SEP Mobile, Symantec again has a very good technology that leads in its market, and we are able to get that message out to the channel and expose it to our partners. It’s a great way to change perceptions about their capability for both product leadership and innovative technology.”
