New journey ahead for security vendors and resellers
Vendors and resellers alike are embarking on a new journey in security, according to the newly appointed CISO for enterprise security vendor Blue Coat.
"Today, we're on a new journey to security outsourcing," Damien Manuel, Blue Coat CISO for Australia and New Zealand, says.
"Cloud offerings are ramping up in general and we're at the beginning of information security outsourcing," he adds.
"The channel need to start embracing cloud and hybrid solutions to make sure they stay relevant to customers in the changing market.
Manuel, who has more than 20 years of business, governance and ICT experience in security, most recently as enterprise IT and security risk manager at National Australia Bank, took up the Blue Coat role last month.
His new role sees him working with senior IT executives from Blue Coat's customers to help ensure they align their security architectures to industry best practices. He will also lead the enterprise security vendor's team of consultants in the region.
He says many customers start small in their move to the cloud, then ramp up.
He says Blue Coat's cloud offering in New Zealand, delivered through Westcon 'is very exciting'.
The company has Westcon as its exclusive New Zealand channel partner for cloud solutions.
Manuel says the Westcon cloud offering is unique for Blue Coat, because it features a New Zealand node of the international Blue Coat Threatpulse service for web and email content filtering. The service is hosted in New Zealand by Kordia Networks, and while Bluecoat is traditionally known for its enterprise offerings – with customers including government departments and large financial services and telecommunications enterprises – the cloud service is billed as 'suitable for SMB through to enterprise clients'.
The Westcon cloud offering is the only one of its kind for Blue Coat. While it has some United States customers, such as AT-T, offering similar, theirs are only available to their own customers.
"In New Zealand it's all about the reseller channel selling the services. It's very channel focused and delivered in New Zealand.
Manuel says many organisations lack the IT skill set, or security practice internally – something which can be leveraged by resellers who want to make the move to managed services.
He says an area of growth in the year ahead will be things like security analytics, an area which managed security service providers can capitalise on.
"By becoming almost a broker, helping organisations adopt new solutions, resellers can help themselves remain relevant and be seen as a trusted advisor.
Thomas Bravo acquired the security vendor in 2012 in a US$1.3 billion deal.
Last month US reports suggested Thomas Bravo could be preparing to sell Blue Coat, with suggestions the company could fetch as mu7ch as US$2.5 billion.
