McAfee launches MSP programme

Security vendor hopes to appeal to its SMB partners with pay-as-you-go model

McAfee is hoping to keep its SMB partners happy by adding a managed service provider (MSP) arm to its SecurityAlliance partner programme.

The security vendor hopes the MSP programme, which will operate as a pay-as-you-go model, will reduce the complexity and cost for VARs.

The programme will offer security protection for end points, servers and networks, and virtual environments as well as mobile devices.

Cristiano Voschion, channel business director in EMEA, said the programme will be more affordable for resellers in the SMB space.

"Typically, the SMB market is the perfect target for MSPs. The MSP programme is flexible and scalable, and with the [economic] climate as it is, partners prefer to work on an opex model; they cannot afford a big licence investment," he said.

"It is a good chance for our distributors and resellers to differentiate themselves in the market," he added.

The programme will differ from its parent SecurityAlliance programme only in its pricing, and will retain its original benefits which include e-learning resources, free web tools and marketing materials.

McAfee distributor Arrow is piloting the MSP programme, and Dale Wilson, its business development manager, agreed that the opex will be more appealing.

He said: "In the past, we have had to do some creative financing to enable a multi-year deal, but with a pay-as-you-go model, the risk of this is taken away.

"The beauty of this for end users is that there is not an anniversary, so the chances are that they will carry on with it. With renewals, they go out shopping for new technology, so it is beneficial for resellers in this way."