Partners defend Barracuda after price hike
Price spike in Energise Updates is received philosophically by security appliance vendor's partners
Bruce Hockin: Change in support pricing reflects new features
Partners of Barracuda Networks have jumped to the vendor’s defence after its
UK support price rise drew criticism from rivals.
The security appliance vendor this month raised prices for its Energise Updates – an annual maintenance subscription for its spam, virus and firewall products – by between 20 and 25 per cent.
Four new features have been added, though, for cloud protection, email spooling, outbound email encryption and system optimisation.
Pat Dunne, vice president of sales at Bloxx, which recently cut its prices by five per cent, said it is unfair for US-based vendors to pass on the cost from currency fluctuations to UK customers. Bloxx rival Websense upped prices by 15 per cent recently.
“Customers won’t take this lightly and resellers will be squeezed on margin,” he said.
However, James McKee, security manager at Barracuda partner Qual, sympathised with the vendor.
“Barracuda has not made a price increase on this product for about six years and four additional benefits have been added. Most customers, once it has been explained to them, would accept the extra cost,” he said.
Bruce Hockin, head of business strategy at Barracuda distributor Avnet, agreed: “The change in support pricing reflects the introduction of new features and services, resulting in improved security, increased user productivity and
better value for the end customer," he said.