CyberGuard plots SME expansion

SnapGear acquisition takes vendor into competition with Cisco and NetScreen

Security vendor CyberGuard aims to take on Cisco and NetScreen in the SME security appliance market, after its acquisition of firewall/virtual private network (VPN) firm SnapGear.

Last week CyberGuard said it had signed an agreement to acquire the privately held Australian appliance manufacturer.

Andrew Clarke, CyberGuard's EMEA managing director, was bullish about the vendor's opportunity to sell across high and low ends following the acquisition.

"SnapGear takes us into the SME market and it has a well-established base of resellers across the EMEA region," he said. "We see this as an opportunity to offer customers a broader product set."

The company said it will be aggressive on price and margins, and said if it is to grow its business it must target competitors such as Cisco and NetScreen.

The vendor plans to maintain the SnapGear name until June 2004 as 'SnapGear by CyberGuard'. After June, the SnapGear product will be referred to as SG. The plan is to integrate fully SnapGear's offerings into CyberGuard's next-generation central management product.

Duncan Hume, vendor alliance manager at CyberGuard and SnapGear distributor OpenPSL, said CyberGuard will double the number of VARs it works with in the UK.

"This will help CyberGuard access the SME market where there is a lot of demand for this type of product," he said.

"We work with 50 resellers for each vendor, with SnapGear VARs playing in the low end and CyberGuard resellers higher up. This gives both an opportunity to broaden their customer bases."

The buy-out follows a flurry of take-overs in the security sector, including NetScreen buying Neoteris and ^F5 buying URoam.