While there was some appeal to staying with the direct model, once Network Box had some runs on the board Glennan went back to the channel because it offers priceless advantages over a purely direct model.
"In some senses going direct can be more appealing but the reality is that when it comes to security, a lot of organisations don’t implement anything until something goes wrong, or someone they know gets hit," Glennan continues.
"When that happens, often the first port of call is someone with whom they’ve already got an established relationship -- their systems integrator. We can’t physically get in front of every potential organisation that would be a candidate for our solution so the channel is essential to us for that reason."
Network Box also recognised that there had not been any type of managed security offering put through the channel that afforded the company a major opportunity.
"Sure, resellers can sell a firewall and get an annuity on the renewal maintenance fee, but it’s pretty slim pickings," says Glennan.
Network Box’s model offers resellers the chance to go to market with a managed service that gives them annuity business while keeping the client in-house.
"If a client says to their reseller, 'We want you to manage this firewall for us', a lot of resellers just don’t have the expertise, and if they try and learn it on the job, they’re effectively experimenting on their client’s network."
That leaves them with two choices, says Glennan. "Do it anyway or get someone in who can and risk a competitor getting the foot in the door with the client.
"So a lot of resellers have said it’s a great solution for us because they can control the client interface in terms of the requirements analysis, maintaining the relationship and doing the installation."
Because many resellers lack sophisticated security competence, Glennan has developed the Network Box model so that they are guided through the requirements process.
"We have an accreditation process and we teach our partners the sort of questions they have to ask. After going through a long questionnaire with each client, we collect the information and the reseller can install or have us install it. The reseller can do first level support, we can pipe the data to them or they can get the reports which both can give a really good view of what’s happening on the client’s network.
"But ultimately the client is getting a managed solution. They can pick up the phone and get a change done and the client and the reseller know that the security is managed by someone who lives and breathes this stuff, does nothing else and is an expert."
Although the channel has been fairly enthusiastically picking up Network Box -- 17 partners achieved
level one certification in just four months last year -- the model is still striking some resistance, partly from negative perceptions of first generation security appliances and also from entrenched
self-interest.
"The early security appliances were pretty bad," says Glennan, "but to be fair, where stuff is built into the firmware, keeping everything up-to-date is a difficult problem to grapple with.
"There has been and still is some resistance to the notion of a single box that can protect against a multitude of threats but that thinking has been driven by the point solution vendors who argue that you can buy a box that can do all these things but won’t do any well.
"And in the early days I think that was a valid criticism but now that a lot of the hardware out there is becoming increasingly more powerful, the bang for buck is just getting better and better, and people realise that going down the integrated best-of-breed path is hideously expensive, not just to install but to maintain as well."
While Glennan recognises there may be some environments that are so complex that they demand the best-of-breed integration approach, he also believes that some IT managers artificially increase the level of complexity because it looks good on their resume.
"There are purists who say, 'Let’s pick one solution for every part of the problem', and I do think that has its place -- extremely complex or heterogeneous environments or where it’s driven by integration with a third party or where there’s a particular regulation, some particularly difficult requirement," says Glennan.
"Unfortunately we see a lot of clients generating almost artificial requirements for complex solutions driven by what people want to put on their resumes. Some IT managers will say, 'That’s an interesting technology, I think it might go somewhere and if I spend the next six to 12 months dabbling with that I’ll command 20 percent more next year. That’s not restricted to the IT security area but it’s probably as prevalent here as anywhere else."
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