Security Lockdown!

Niche security value-added distributor Firewall Systems is running training sessions to educate resellers on selling security. 'The training sessions aren't about technology and the reason they're not about technology is that your customers aren't talking about technology.

'The IT channel is used to selling business productivity, applications, networks and all that kind of stuff. The entire channel is used to talking that way but when they're talking about security to end users it's like talking a different language.

'The end user is talking about risk mitigation – and that is at the governance level and it's also talking about business continuity at the CEO level,' he says.

Customers are interested in security policy and the reseller being able to provide a service level that meets that policy. 'They're saying: 'That's impossible for anyone to do unless you're a specialist – vendors aren't doing it and distributors aren't doing it. So we partner with our vendors at that level with a service model that provides monitoring and management services, renewal services and even products that we're going to be launching in the future.' Forthcoming products around neural networks (supposedly networks that learn and stop threats from happening) will be announced in the future, Verykios says.

'We'll be offering that service and what resellers will be selling is something that has a service level agreement attached to it, constant monitoring, managing and reporting and also updating so they've got an annuity stream coming their way.'

Firewall recently added the 'missing piece' to its managed security offering for the channel signing an agency with Exinda Networks. Firewall is marketing Exinda's Optimiser appliance which lets service providers report on their data communications and voice infrastructure and pinpoint where problems lie without any downtime (see story in Distribution & Logistics).

The important thing that resellers are understanding is that they have an opportunity to do two things,' Verykios says.

'Previously the best they could possibly do is rent a customer based on a drive-by [sale],' Verykios says. 'Now they can actually start to think about owning the customer. They can sit in front of them every month telling them what's going on in their network. Because of what they've sold them and made money on they can go further and say because of what we know, we need to do this to your applications and network services and they're actually starting to sell back to the customer what they're good at,' he says.

Generally, Verykios says resellers are finally 'getting it.' The Lanlinks, IBMs, as well as the Netlans and security specialists. 'Netlan are doing really well – talking our model and selling it to schools,' he says.