Alvea hopes to lure SMBs with managed security service

Computerlinks' cloud arm claims its enterprise-grade solutions will be available to SMBs at lower cost

Cloud services aggregator Alvea Services is hoping to lure SMB partners with its new managed network security (MNS) service which goes live today.

The Computerlinks services arm is aiming to sign up between 50 and 70 resellers to take the services to SMB customers, which it defines as companies with 50 to 1,000 users.

Alvea claims that in the past, small businesses have been priced out of enterprise solutions, but will now be able to take advantage of the same level of service but for lower cost. Monthly pricing for end users starts from £50 and goes up to about £175.

The service provider claims the MNS programme, which is available through its channel partners, will be most popular with the financial and legal markets.

Neil Gardner, Alvea's services proposition manager, said the SMB market is ripe for more opex spending. He added that while other managed security programmes are available, they do not always meet end users' needs.

He said: "There are a variety of managed firewalls out there, but they tend not to offer a complete range, and do not offer the depth of white-labelling and rebranding opportunities that we do."

Last summer, Alvea launched its Cloud Connect partner programme, which it claims has enjoyed huge success and will feature updates and expansion in 2013 to keep up with demand.