Barracuda set to take a bite out of UTM sector
Vendor unveils plans to sell spyware, spam and instant messaging applications separately
Appliance vendor Barracuda is taking an alternative approach to the much-hyped Unified Threat Management (UTM) sector, according to its chief executive Dean Drako.
Speaking to CRN, Drako said the vendor is selling all of its applications separately rather than combining them into one solution. The vendor, which secured $40m in venture capital funding earlier this year (CRN, 23 January), has recently unveiled a third offering to its anti-spam firewall and spyware firewall product set: the Barracuda instant messaging (IM) Firewall.
“We believe that defence in depth is more valuable to customers than trying to defend the three key areas [spyware, spam and IM] in a UTM approach,” Drako said. “We have specialised in each application, providing multiple layers of protection, which are still easy [for partners] to install.”
Drako added that the UK is an important market for Barracuda and that it values its channel partners.
“The UK is the number-two market that we focus on. We have always been 100 per cent channel-focused, and treat our partners very well,” he claimed. “We try to make sure that there is always plenty of margin in our products for our partners.”
The vendor caters for companies of all sizes, but is particularly targeting the medium end of the market, Drake added.
“Our products cover companies with 10 users to 10 million users,” he said. “However, we really try to focus on what we characterise as the medium part of the SME [market].”
Kay Eggleston, UK managing director of distributor Risc Technology, said: “Barracuda is good at what it does. Ultimately it will always compete with UTM, and its products have tended to have more of an SME demand in the past.
“However, now Barracuda has launched the IM box, it will appeal more to the enterprise customers, because IM is a growing problem in this sector.”