IronPort storms SME market with Blocker
Vendor launches gateway security appliance aimed at firms with 100 employees or less
IronPort has unleashed its first assault on the lucrative SME market place with the launch of its Blocker gateway security appliance (pictured, right).
The appliance is targeted at firms with around 100 employees and IronPort claimed it will help its partners generate extra margin in new markets by offering their smaller customers enterprise-level protection.
Jason Steer, European product manager at IronPort – which recently ended its UK distribution relationships – said: “This launch will give our channel partners some volume sales. Traditionally we have operated at the large enterprise and mid-market level, but as the company has grown and we saw the competition is making money in the SME space, we decided to tailor our products for that market sector too.”
Steer said the vendor, which was acquired by networking and security giant Cisco for $830m earlier this year (CRN Online, 5 January), has no plans to recruit additional partners to focus on the SME sector as yet, enabling the extra business to be divided between its existing channel.
“SMEs are the bread and butter for a lot of resellers, so they have the relationships in place to make money for themselves and IronPort,” Steer said.
Nick Garlick, managing director of VAR Nebulas Security, said: “I think this is a very good move on the part of IronPort. As well as being very strong in the large/medium enterprise space, where it has traditionally competed, this launch is going to open up new doors to it and its partners.”
However, Garlick said it would be interesting to see which partners benefit the most.
“We tend to sell more to the mid-market sized space, and there tends to be other channels that are more suited to selling these kind of products, so we will have to wait and see what happens,” he said.