SMBs Rely on VARs for Security Solutions.

For many SMBs, data and network security have become major priorities. How major? Well, major enough for SMBs to spend an average of $51,000 a year on it, and two-thirds of their IT staff time, according to a survey released last year by Symantec.

Symantec’s 2010 Global SMB Information Protection Survey, published last June, found that SMBs (with 10 to 499 employees) made information protection their main IT priority, as opposed to  2009, when one-third of them lacked the most basic protection of all—antivirus software.

SMBs’ new-found preoccupation with security is not too surprising. Companies are facing increased threats from cyber attacks, lost devices, and the loss of confidential or proprietary data such as bank account numbers, credit card information, and customer and employee records. Whether it’s due to a malware attack, a server crash or a stolen mobile device, lost information can be highly detrimental, if not fatal for an SMB.

Asked to rank five risks in order of significance, 74 percent of SMBs in the 2010 survey chose data loss as number one or two, while 58 percent chose cyber attacks. And, for good reason -- 42 percent said they had lost confidential or proprietary information in the past year, which resulted in lost revenues, damaged reputations and direct financial costs. Seventy-three percent said they were hit by cyber attacks.

In spite of the rising security threats, a lot of SMBs are still more reactive than proactive when it comes to doing anything about protecting their data, devices or networks, says Alan Novack, an IBM senior systems engineer at Tech Data.

“Usually, SMBs don’t deal with security until they have to,” he notes. “In many cases, they think about security after the horse has bolted from the stable—after valuable and/or confidential data has been lost, or a network has been crashed or deeply penetrated.”

Tech Data’s Recommendations
Security can be a hard sell for VARs but it doesn’t have to be, says Brett Johnson, a systems engineer at Tech Data.

“VARs can help SMBs with various security issues in many different ways,” says Johnson. “They can perform all kinds of security assessments, chiefly data risk assessments and network vulnerability assessments, as well as regulatory compliance consulting and security audits.”

SMBs Need VARs for Advice and Expertise
The need for companies to protect their networks, and the data inside them, is becoming more important every day, so understanding the solutions and opportunities around network and data security is crucial for VARs, says, Vice President of Software Product Marketing at Tech Data, Stacy Nethercoat.

“Small and medium businesses are most vulnerable to intrusions, and rely on resellers and our vendor partners to educate them about how to protect their data,” notes Nethercoat.

The SMB market presents VARs with many lucrative sales opportunities not just to sell products but to wrap services and add-on sales around the initial sale, she adds.

Some SMBs are slow to adopt security solutions due to the perceived complexity of the products, and their lack of internal resources and expertise, says Chris Wargo, co-founder and senior security consultant at InfoLock Technologies, a VAR in Arlington, Virginia.

“Security solutions are complicated systems that require integration with existing networks and applications, and significant experience to properly install, configure and manage,” says Wargo. “Such complexity can overwhelm the average SMB’s IT staff, but this presents an opportunity for the VAR, not just to gain service revenue but to develop a trusted advisor role with clients.”

	Security Appliances Remain Hot with SMBs and VARs For many SMBs, all-in-one security appliances are the best solution to their security needs as they are very affordable, offer excellent protection and require little or no technical expertise to install or maintain. For those same reasons, VARs find appliances to be a relatively easy ‘sell.’ Among the easiest ‘sells’ are functional, manageable and upgradeable devices, notably Unified Threat Management (UTM) appliances, which are available from many vendors, including Fortinet, SonicWALL and WatchGuard. A UTM solution provides comprehensive protection to customers as it has tightly integrated security features that work together on a single appliance. UTMs typically include intrusion detection and prevention, gateway antivirus, e-mail spam filtering and Web content filtering, as well as a firewall. This class of appliance makes it easy for organizations to manage their security because they only have to deal with one box and one source of support. Such an appliance solution is highly cost-effective as it offers a centralized console that enables monitoring of network security at remote locations. In addition to UTMs, the market includes standalone appliances (which deliver a single security application), blade appliances (a hybrid between UTMs and standalone devices) and software or CD appliances. Let us know how we can help you build your security solutions practice. Contact authority@techdata.com .