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28 Jan 2010
Bell Micro is locking horns with former two-factor authentication (2FA) ally RSA Security as it pushes a tokenless alternative to resellers.
Three months after being axed from RSA’s line up, the distributor has settled on a replacement in the form of SecurEnvoy, which also works through Avnet.
SecurEnvoy’s SecurAccess works by forwarding ‘virtual tokens’ to remote workers’ mobile phones, via SMS.
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Ed Callacher, divisional manager for networking and security at Bell, said he aimed to initially recruit 40 to 50 resellers on SecurEnvoy’s behalf.
“We had a look around and decided to go for something a bit different,” he said.
“Avnet works with about 35 SecurEnvoy resellers. If you compare that with RSA, which has more than 400 partners, there is an opportunity there.”
Callacher claimed the UK 2FA market is worth about $70m-$80m annually, with the tokenless segment worth just five per cent of that.
“The market is tiny but is at the start of a growth upcurve,” he said.
“SecurEnvoy is the leading vendor in this market space, with over 50 per cent share of the tokenless market.”
Callacher said he would push SecurEnvoy to Bell’s former RSA partners but maintained that token-based and tokenless solutions could sit alongside each other, particularly in organisations that use a lot of contractors.
But he added: “I do not believe the future of 2FA lies with hardware tokens.”
David Hobson, managing director of VAR GSS, said: “The 2FA space is very well catered for and the challenge is finding a real unique selling point.
“With 26 players in the market it is very difficult to stand out.”
Bruce Hockin, head of business strategy at Avnet Technology Solutions’ Networking & Security business unit, claimed that Bell would not stray onto Avnet’s turf in the enterprise space.
“Such is the appeal of its technology that it is natural for it to seek penetration in small business markets too,” he said.
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