Cisco launches white-label web store for SMB products via Westcon-Comstor

Cisco and Westcon-Comstor have teamed up to launch a white-label web store for cybersecurity software-as-a-service offerings for small and medium-sized businesses.

Dubbed Hybrid SMB, the web store aims to assist SMBs to configure which Cisco cybersecurity offerings they require and also approximate how much it would cost for them.

Hybrid SMB is also available to Cisco and Westcon-Comstor channel partners as a white-label offering to their own end user base.

“Hybrid SMB provides a new route to market for our partners and also provides small businesses with a way to get their hands on some pretty cool and sophisticated cybersecurity solutions and tools,” Westcon-Comstor practice lead for Cisco Security Marco Hermosura told CRN.

“The target market is from between one to fifty users and is designed for decision-makers that wear many hats. They have a lot of things to juggle and ... the site [was built] to make things easy, remove complexity and give them a sense of satisfaction to know that they are choosing the right things and that they are able to address what keeps them up at night.”

Hermosura added that it was a joint effort by Cisco’s SMB team and Comstor, the distie’s Cisco specialist business, in an effort to address simplicity to small businesses and to match and tailor with the Cisco solutions, while also not alienating channel partners.

The product offerings include secure internet gateway Cisco Umbrella, managed network security platform Cisco Meraki and Cisco Secure Access by Duo for multi-factor authentication and zero trust.

Hybrid SMB also caters to small businesses that have people working from home, like startups and those with minimal to zero infrastructure, but also requires sophisticated cybersecurity that is easy to set up and cover the remote workforce.

Cisco ANZ small business architectures sales lead Helena Ng told CRN, “It's a hard thing for end customers to shop Cisco because we service from the very smallest customers all the way to the largest — like government, telco and enterprise — and everything in between. We have very sophisticated cybersecurity solutions and sometimes it's really hard to distil that down to something that's very simple so that a basic end-user can understand.”

“What Comstor has done with Hybrid SMB is to hide some of that complexity so customers can have some agency in choosing what they want that could cover their needs.”