New Hosted Security Offerings from Trend Micro
SMBs need security, and SaaS offerings are hot in this market right now. Find out how Trend Micro is tapping into both.
By Cecilia Galvinalvin
With SMBs embracing SaaS in increasing numbers to save money, and research firm IDC projecting that the SaaS market overall will grow by 41 percent annually for the next five years, it’s a good time for vendors to be getting into the market for hosted applications. Trend Micro Inc., a Cupertino, Calif., provider of Internet content security offerings, has done just that with its new portfolio of hosted endpoint, hosted email, and hosted Web site security products for SMBs.
Trend Micro’s hosted endpoint security, called Worry-Free Business Security Hosted, protects multiple PCs and notebooks within and outside small offices from viruses and other threats. Customers can centrally manage security from anywhere without adding a server or installing server software, since Trend Micro hosts and continually updates the service. “Because our engineers and IT staff update our applications 24/7 worldwide, our hosted customers are getting real-time protection vs. on-premise solutions,” says Eric Jensen, senior product marketing manager, Trend Micro.
Worry-Free Remote Manager for Hosted Email Security, another new offering, enables solution providers to centrally manage-from a secure, hosted Web console-multiple clients that employ Trend Micro’s InterScan Messaging Hosted Security, an anti-spam application. Partners using the remote manager solution are also able to directly manage InterScan customer licensing and renewals.
“With hosted email security being supported by Worry-Free Remote Manager, our channel solution partners for the first time can reach out and manage multiple customers very easily and efficiently,” says Jensen. “So SMB customers who are inclined to go to hosted security but don’t have the time [to manage it], now can have a channel solution partner do it for them. And that’s a big deal.”
Rounding out the company’s portfolio of products is SecureSite, a hosted security service Trend Micro has been fine-tuning for about a year that helps protect e-commerce Web sites by scanning for vulnerabilities that threaten online privacy and revenue. Partners have an opportunity to earn additional revenues from the service by attaching remediation services. “A reseller or IT consultant can produce a report that shows the client, ‘With your new Web form, you opened up these vulnerabilities, and here’s how we fix it.'” And, there’s an opportunity for annuity revenue when the yearly SecureSite subscription comes up for renewal: According to Trend Micro, there is a high renewal rate on hosted solutions versus on-premise offerings.
