Distie warns of new twist as Intel axes SaaS email products
Partners and customers in for a headache, firm's boss claims
Partners and customers affected by Intel Security's decision to end-of-life its SaaS email protection products could be struck with another blow, according to a distie boss, who claims white-label partners might be affected too.
Back in October, Intel Security - formerly McAfee - announced the end-of-life of its email archiving, encryption, protection and continuity offerings as it looks to create a more "integrated" system.
At the time, rivals cheered the move, but on a recent blog post, distributor Blue Solutions' director Mark Charlton said the move could cause significant inconvenience for the channel.
"Email anti-spam is relatively easy to fix, but email archiving will be a right pain in the whatsits for people," he told CRN. "I think it depends which product you're using. But what's worse about is, if a partner makes a commitment to a vendor and they have done their due diligence and bought into a brand, been to their events, done their billing, trained their technical people - then to have the rug pulled from under your feet, when you're not in control of it - you've suddenly got to say ‘I am not prepared for this, I haven't done my research'.
"Now you've got to find a new vendor, get trained up, tell the sales team, you've got to understand how their commercial model works, how their licensing works, how the technicals work, and you may have to go back to your customers and tell them what's going on. It is time and money that people aren't budgeting for because it is thrown upon them. The smaller the business, the bigger the hit really."
On his blog outlining the issue, he said the issue could be felt harder in the channel than first imagined.
"It's the gift that keeps on giving," he said. "Because although the announcement was originally reported at the end of October, we've since learnt that many other security offerings like Nuvotera [and] Spam Soap [part of the same company] were white-labelling McAfee's service, so end-of-life becomes a potentially huge issue for all of them - and the end-users they serve."
Distie Excel Micro - the parent firm of Nuvotera and Spam Soap - has a page on its website dedicated to filling in customers on the Intel Security end-of-life news, and assures customer it has them covered.
"Excel Micro is a distributor for multiple email security solutions including Proofpoint, Symantec, Reflexion, FuseMail and more," the website reads. "Our teams of migration and SaaS specialists have proven tools and processes and stand by ready to assist with your account.
"As more information is released, the team as Excel Micro will be communicating via phone, email, our knowledgebase, and website. A major benefit of being partner with Excel Micro is having a team and model allowing for flexibility and migration options to solutions best fit for you and your client's needs. Please never hesitate to contact our team with questions."
Intel Security was not immediately available to comment.