Isolation-based security is a fairly new technology, with Symantec being the best-known vendor in the space, but Cyberinc thinks that the additional security value they bring to the table will resonate with HPE’s own core messaging.
Samir Shah, Cyberinc’s CEO
LAS VEGAS – Isolation-based security is a relatively new category in the cybersecurity space. San Ramon CA-based CyberInc is anticipating that their new partnership with Hewlett Packard Enterprise will increase awareness of it. Cyberinc has joined the HPE Complete program, which will enable their Isla malware isolation solution to be sold on HPE price lists and through the HPE reseller channel.
Isolation-based security has been on the market for about three years. As the name suggests, it is based on protecting endpoints by keeping their browsers isolated from the possibility of infection by unknown threats through emails, documents, or the Web.
“The most pressing challenge in cybersecurity today is the sophistication of cyberattacks on endpoints,” said Samir Shah, Cyberinc’s CEO. “Traditional detection-based technologies simply can’t detect them any more. Isolation-based technology is based on the assumption that everything on the Internet is fundamentally unsafe. You still have to work with it, however. So you do that by isolating everything outside of the network, to prevent a possible mess.”
Traditionally, when users access a page, it comes into the network through the firewall and IDS. With isolation-based security, it comes down through the appliance – in this case an HPE appliance that is deployed outside the network in a DMZ.
“After the session is done, it is all flushed and recycled,” Shah said. “The only thing that comes into the network is a stream of pixels for display for purpose in the browser. The end user notices no difference.”
Cyberinc was so impressed by the technology that they completely restructured the company’s business around it.
“We have been in been in business since 2009 [as AurionPro Solutions], and the primary business until recently had been in the identity and access management space,” Shah said. “We recently sold that business to KPMG, and we are now in completely in the malware isolation business.” That IAM business had been significant, and involved the transfer of a 190 person global team. However, its sale allowed Cyberinc to focus on malware isolation, a market which it itself had entered in 2016 earlier through the acquisition of Spikes Security, a small startup which had developed Isla.
“Symantec made this area much more well known in 2017, when they acquired Fireglass, an Israeli-based startup,” Shah said. “They are the other major player in this space, and their presence in it has been great for the market because of their visibility. It brought instant credibility to the space, and makes our own evangelical work much easier.”
At this point, Shah said that their market is primarily SME – with between 500 and 5000 customers being the sweet spot.
“As a smaller company, we focus on how fast we can grow, and the SME is more attractive here, because larger enterprises have a longer sales cycle,” he indicated. “We do have a few larger customers, and the solution itself certainly scales to that level.
Cyberinc’s business is almost entirely channel.
“We have a few legacy direct deals, but the channel is our route to market,” Shah said. “We are focusing on a few key reseller partners, working with the cream of the market, to really drive the business. It’s not a hard sell to this type of partner. When we explain the technology to them, the lightbulb instantly goes on. There is a natural tailwind, and we believe that we have some behind us right now.”
Cyberinc is looking to the HPE Complete program to increase the force of that tailwind. HPE uses the program to validate strategic vendor partner designs and take them to market, through both their direct and channel sales arms. HPE Complete solutions are sold bundled with HPE hardware, on HPE price lists, opening up the realistic possibility of a significant increase in sales. The program – in existence for two years but only formally launched earlier this month – now has approximately 30 vendor partners.
Cyberinc’s Isla solution will be sold to midmarket and enterprise customers on HPE Apollo high density servers, and to SMB customers on Gen 10 HPE Proliant servers.
“With the security proposition value proposition growing rapidly, we add several additional degrees of security on top of that,” Shah stated. “We are a great complement to the Gen 10 ProLiants, where HPE has positioned them heavily around their security proposition.
“Some other directions are also being discussed, including working with HPE Aruba,” Shah added. “We are also independently talking with other HPE partners like Veeam.”
In addition to the prevalidation and integration that is part and parcel of the HPE Complete program, Cyberinc is also offering plenty of training on their software, to attempt to overcome any natural reluctance of both partners and HPE internal people in selling a new vendor as part of a solution.
“We are trying to make it easy, and take the friction out,” Shah said.
The HPE go-to-market initiative will run alongside the channel strategy that Cyberinc has already developed.
“We have our own distribution model, and the rails have been laid out there over the last twelve months, but this is a nice supplement to it,” Shah said. “We have high hopes for the HPE program, but we know that it will also take a lot of work over the next 6-12 months for the HPE channel to be successful with us. Any HPE reseller can resell us now, but we will enable key partners, get them trained, and give them good reasons to sell this product versus something else.”
