Comodo has offered a free version, Comodo Dome Shield, which will continue as Comodo Dome Shield Gold, but they expect that most of their customers will upgrade to the paid Platinum version because it has more functionality and no monthly limits on DNS requests.

Comodo Cybersecurity has announced the release of Comodo Dome Shield Platinum, a paid version of their cloud-delivered, DNS-based SaaS solution that blocks access to malicious Websites. They expect most of their customers to upgrade to the pay version, because it provides additional visibility and functionality, something that will be attractive both more enterprises and for MSPS. The Platinum service also eliminates a 300,000 monthly DNS request limit.

Comodo Cybersecurity is a 20 year old company whose most visible part was their certificate authority business, which was spun out a year ago to Francisco Partners as Comodo CA, and was just rebranded as Sectigo. Comodo retained a broad security portfolio of which the security that protects the Domain Name System [DNS] – the telephone book of the Internet – is one component.

“Our DNS business isn’t new – it’s just a well-kept secret,” said Bill Weinberg, Comodo’s Director of Communications. “Comodo’s original certification business was very profitable and the revenues from it were used to fund the other businesses. It is not Comodo’s only line of business now, but it is a major one, which addresses a hole in the market.”

That hole has emerged from the fact that the DNS has become a favourite target for DDoS attacks, combined with the fact that vendor security suites typically do not include DNS protection, resulting in the gap being filled by specialists. Comodo has provided  Comodo Dome Shield, a highly configurable web filter offered as a SaaS service, to check the content and reputation of sites for companies. It leverages the Comodo Threat Intelligence service, which protects 600,000 businesses and 85 million endpoints worldwide. Dome Shield validates 2.5 billion user requests daily, and blocks 1.2 million attack attempts daily.

“We offered Comodo Dome Shield as a free service,” said Cassandra Hackett, Product Manager at Comodo. “Now we have created two new packages. Comodo Dome Shield Gold remains a free service. Comodo Dome Shield Platinum is a paid service.” A customized Comodo Dome Shield Platinum for MSP will be offered to that market.

Comodo expects that most of their customers,  both among enterprises and MSPs, will opt for the paid Platinum version.

“Dome Shield Platinum is for customers who reach a certain plateau of users,” Weinberg said. “We also don’t think that the price will be a disincentive. Compared to the pay products in the market, we have the best feature set for the price.”

“The user base was already getting a quality service for free, and now the price which we will charge for Platinum is the lowest on the market,” said Nevzat Huruzoglu, Product Manager at Comodo

Huruzoglu said that Platinum also provides another valuable feature addition, full visibility into the internal IP name user base, with Internal IP/Subnet/IP Block based Visibility and Monitoring.

“In terms of needs of users, this is major,” he said. “It lets them know what’s going on in their network, and see who is being blocked. It also allows them to create exceptions, with Internal Domain Bypass Rules. It’s a big need for enterprises of all sizes and MSPs.”

“We expect the majority of users to move up to Platinum, because there is a limit of 300,000 DNS requests per month on the free service, and removing that limit eliminates an element of unpredictability,” Hackett said.

Additional functionality provided in the Platinum version includes DNS Traffic Encryption, Local DNS Resolver Virtual Appliances and Management by Sites and DNS Egress Points.

Hackett said the price differential with other paid service is particularly important in the MSP market, which tends to be price-sensitive.

“The majority of Comodo users are MSPs,” she said. “Because we are less expensive, they get more for the buck from us. The additional functionality and removal on limits will allow them to provide this fully as a service, and give them another source of revenue.”