LAN takes four-vendor security bundle to channel

Distributor LAN Systems has signed an exclusive deal to take a four-vendor Internet security software bundle to mid-size businesses, an approach believed a first for the Australian channel.

Wendy O'Keeffe, sales and marketing director at LAN Systems, said security software vendors Check Point, SurfControl and Trend Micro had combined with Nokia to offer firewall, web/email-filtering, anti-virus and VPN to mid-size businesses via Australian resellers.

LAN Systems will offer the customisable package, dubbed the 10/10 program, online. 'It's pretty groovy. We have consolidated to try to provide an overall 'solution',' O'Keeffe said. 'We have put together a configurable offering on our website ... It will calculate how many products and appliances are required and determine whether or not they need high availability.'

She said the multi-vendor approach of the exclusive relationship would allow LAN Systems to offer 'the best possible' technical and sales offering in internet security, an area where the distributor considered itself a leader.

'This creates an opportunity to achieve a high value cross-sell for resellers. It reduces the risk of purchasing security [software] because all products are tested for interoperability via OPSEC (Open Platform for Security) certification,' she added.

O'Keeffe said 10/10 offered buyers a single point of purchase that lowered the risk of relying on one vendor, clarifying their options.

'Resellers don't have to have multiple relationships with multiple vendors and multiple points of purchase,' O'Keeffe said.

Scott McKinnel, national channels manager for Check Point in Australia, said he believed the multi-vendor bundle was first of its kind in Australia. 'This was really created out of a demand from the low to mid-tier market. Because security, with a lot of legislation and a lot of threats that are happening, low to mid-tier businesses often don't have the resources to fight them,' he said.

LAN Systems was chosen because it already had partnerships with all of the vendors except SurfControl, he said, so there was already a solid base on which to build the new arrangement.

Firewall specialist Check Point, anti-virus software vendor Trend Micro and web/email filtering company SurfControl had allied with Nokia Internet Communications to offer a combined, customisable portfolio that represented a 'one-step' way to tackle internet security problems, he said.

McKinnel said Check Point was providing firewall, Smart Defence intrusion prevention system and VPN management products for companies with 'less than 25 staff and up to 250 or 500' users. Products from all three vendors would be combined on a Nokia hardware platform, he said.

'It's been driven by all the vendors and we're all contributing fairly equally,' McKinnel said.