Security startup Safend is launching its first official partner program with a commitment to push all of its business through the channel.
“From day one, it has been our plan to be 100 percent channel,” said Ari Fruchter, channel manager at the company.
The Israeli company, which has U.S. headquarters in Philadelphia, offers USB Port Protector, which stops data theft or virus introduction from external storage devices that connect via USB ports by allowing companies to control which users can plug in which devices, said Dor Skuler, vice president of Safend.
The company next month will launch a new version of the product, Safend Protector, that extends protection to all local access interfaces, Skuler said.
The new program creates an authorized reseller category, which allows participating VARs access to sales and technical training and defined margins, Fruchter said.
The Safend product line is a good fit for solution providers that already have a security practice, he said. “This gives them a good reason to go back out to their customers and reconnect,” he said.
Partners also have exclusive access to any leads generated from the company’s Safend Auditor, a downloadable application that lets administrators see “every single device that’s ever connected” to the network, Skuler said. Auditor is downloaded by several hundred companies monthly, he added.
The Auditor application “works as a great sales tool,” said Dennis Cichelli, president of Kutztown, Pa.-based LANtek, one of Safend’s first solution providers in the United States.
USB ports don’t have any protection, Cichelli said. “It’s a sneaky back door that IT people are aware of, but they haven’t done anything to nail it down. With Auditor, you can confirm that it really is a wide-open hole for a security breech.”
The company’s products are handled through e-Convergence Solutions, a distributor in Centreville, Va.
USB Protector’s list price ranges from $25 per seat per year down to $10 per seat per year, depending on volume.
The new Safend Protector, which extends protection to other access interfaces, is slated to be priced at $32 per seat, with discounts related to volume.
