Cyber-security newbie challenges for channel supremacy

Resolution1 Security expects to harvest up to 90 per cent of sales through partners after it goes live on 1 January

Cyber security newbie Resolution1 Security expects the channel to generate the lion's share of its first-year revenue haul.

The new kid on the block, a spin-out of forensics outfit AccessData, will go head to head with FireEye and Bit9 when it formally launches on 1 January 2015.

AccessData announced today its split into two firms, one focusing on its core but slow-growth forensics tools and the other – which is being renamed Resolution1 Security – on its newer but potentially explosive e-discovery and incident response activities.

Talking to CRN, Neil Batstone, global vice president of alliances and channel at Resolution1 Security, said the move was to cater to investors and their "propensity for risk and opportunity".

"AccessData is well known and respected in the forensics business," he said. "While that's a steady and profitable business, it doesn't offer the growth potential that cyber security and e-discovery offers us."

Batstone said the firm had dedicated between 5,000 and 10,000 hours to building out a channel enablement programme to help Resolution1 partners fulfil the demand he claims is out there for cyber-security solutions.

"There have been a lot of high-profile data breaches in the last six to nine months and because of that we have found our sales cycle has decreased significantly," Batstone explained. "Being able to support partners in the presentation of our solutions and delivering proof of concepts is something we have been very focused on as we prepare for the launch of the new company."

AccessData already counts Greenstar Technology and PerformIT among its UK cyber-security partners and boasts global partnerships with HP and IBM. Batstone said the door was wide open to potential recruits focused on security transformation and incident response, particularly those serving the financial services, retail, telecoms or public sector markets.

AccessData believes the end-point detection and response (EDR) tools market will quadruple in size to $400m by 2016 and Batstone claimed his firm was better placed to capitalise than more established rivals. These include Carbon Black, which was recently bought by Bit9, and FireEye-owned Mandiant.

"From a technology standpoint we do have competitors, but what most are not able to do is deal with these incidents in an automated way," Batstone said.

Although Resolution1 will have a direct sales force, its primary function will be to support partners, Batstone claimed.

"I imagine 80 to 90 per cent of business will be transacted through the channel," he said.

The two companies will remain as one from an ownership perspective, and will share a board, but the management teams will be separate, with current AccessData president COO Brian Karney becoming CEO of Resolution1.