Stonesoft points McAfee partners towards NGFW opportunity

Next-generation firewall vendor says its acquisition by McAfee will enable the latter's resellers to tap into $4.6bn market

Stonesoft claims its acquisition by McAfee will allow the security giant's partners to capitalise on a $4.6bn next-generation firewall (NGFW) opportunity for the first time.

McAfee stumped up $389m for Stonesoft in July, mainly to get its hands on the Finnish firm's NGFW wares and advanced evasion technique (AET) capabilities.

Talking to CRN, Ash Patel, UK regional director at Stonesoft, said the purchase would enable McAfee and its resellers a play for the first time in an NGFW market set to mushroom from $500m in 2012 to $4.6bn in 2016.

Top McAfee partners such as Caretower, AVR and Sysec have already begun to pick up and run with its technology, he added.

"The acquisition allows long-standing McAfee partners that have been selling its ePO [ePolicy Orchestrator], anti-virus and desktop encryption technologies for many years to have an additional string to their bow," he said. "Maybe they have not come across Stonesoft before, but now they can capitalise on a $4.6bn marketplace."

Despite its lack of brand recognition, Stonesoft has traditionally won 90 per cent of the NGFW opportunities it is invited to contend, Patel said. "Since the McAfee acquisition we have already seen a major shift and are being invited to many more opportunities," he added. "There's no doubt in two years we will be leading or be one of the top two in the NGFW space."

Stonesoft's 25-30 active UK resellers will also benefit from gaining access to McAfee's ePO management system, Patel said. McAfee will begin integrating Stonesoft's portfolio into ePO in Q1 2014, around the same time that integration of the two channels will kick off.

David Lannin, security strategist at top-level Stonesoft partner Sapphire, said the combination of the two technologies would benefit joint customers, but urged McAfee not to meddle with Stonesoft's roadmap.

"It would be good to see the specialisms Stonesoft has be retained, specifically around APTs [advanced persistent threats]," he said. "We wouldn't want to see that removed or the product path distorted in any way."

Stonesoft is currently known as 'Stonesoft, a McAfee company' but the Stonesoft name will be dropped just as soon as McAfee's stake in the company rises to 100 per cent (which Patel said would happen imminently).