Trend Micro updates hosted services to give channel a shot at SMBs

Security products and services vendor Trend Micro has launched a new hosted security offering aimed helping its channel partners target SMBs with a hybrid hosted security solution the vendor claims is lower cost with more features than rival MacAfee’s entry level equivalent.

Trend Micro is also offering a recurring revenue model and “buy out” option to allow partners to offer customers with licences for existing rival security solutions the option switch to Trend without penalty.

“With on premise solutions, the main elements that can go wrong are management and configuration servers,” explains James Walker, EMEA product marketing manager for Trend’s SMB division, “Because we host and manage this element, partners don’t have to go on site but can still carryout configuration, monitoring and changes.”

Walker believes that SMBs that have tended to stick with consumer antivirus can finally be targeted by channel partners with its hosted products as the new suite removes local management concerns. The new ‘Worry-Free Business Security Services’ hosted platform also offers added functionality such website filtering, anti spam, removable media access control and technology to speed up the processing of antivirus signatures on low powered devices such as netbooks.

Trend Micro, who claims it is the number three security vendor globally, is heavily investing in cloud and hosted technologies. The firm has reportedly spend around $300m over the last few years within the area and according to Steve Chang, Trend Micro’s founder and chairman, the firm will be launching ‘TCloud’, a new cloud operating system in Q2 of this year.

With many security vendors aggressively pushing into hosting, in Walker’s view, the key to establishing market share is encouraging users to switch vendor as opposed to capturing new business. He highlights an estimated 90 percent adoption of antivirus across the addressable market and the growth of ‘free’ alternatives as potential issues, although contends that Trend’s investment in both staff and comprehensive management platforms is a key advantage for the firm.

Although admittedly late to the hosted security services model, Walker believes that the depth of features within “version two” of Trend’s hosted offering and a price point he estimates at “around 25 percent less than the entry level MacAfee equivalent” will allow the vendor to gain significant market share in a rapidly emerging market sector.