Kaspersky upgrades SMB cloud security suite

Security juggernaut Kaspersky will next week roll out an upgraded version of its Hosted Security software-as-as-service solution, offering SMBs an “enterprise-level” solution for an “affordable” price.

Hosted Security V.3.2 comprises email and web security, filtering and protection from email-borne malware, spam and phishing attacks. All existing customers will be moved to the new suite next week.

APAC director of cloud services Bernie Bengler said SMBs were most vulnerable to external attack.

"SMBs are more likely to lack the resources to handle their IT properly, especially when it comes to upgrades and high availability,” he said.

“A lot of issues occur because systems haven’t been patched and aren’t properly configured, and SMBs don’t usually have the bandwidth to handle these things.”

Kaspersky has also upped its data centre capacity from 100,000 users to a quarter of a million.

It currently utilises space in two “top-tier” data centres in Sydney, but Bengler told CRN Kaspersky was considering relocating one to Perth or Melbourne.

“We are thinking of moving out of Sydney to a different city to have better coverage, not for performance, for customer piece of mind,” he said.

“So if you have a major outage, it’s restricted to a certain area. If you have a second leg somewhere else, the user is less concerned when it comes to failure of a data centre, which can happen.”

The relocated data centre is expected to open in the second half of the year. An extension of capacity is not currently anticipated.

The “100 percent” channel company boasts partners across A/NZ in the “hundreds”, including SMS Management & Technology, Whitegold, Hemisphere Solutions and Express Data, and consumer resellers JB HiFi and Officeworks.

Bengler said the upgraded hosted security solution would allow partners to accumulate licences and upsell on endpoint security or gateway products, as part of a solution to be announced next week.

Prices vary depending on the size of the organisation and start from $46 per licence for bundled web and email hosted security. Standalone email security starts from $20 per licence.