INSIGHT Feedback
Do Specialisms Win Out?
When it comes to data security are security specialists winning out over partners with broader offerings?
A new report from hosting
firm UKFast’s threat
monitoring service has
provided an up to date
snapshot in the scale of security
threats facing organisations today.
UKFast CTO Neil Lathwood
said: “We’re seeing a rising
number of attempted PHP web
attacks across the servers. PHP is
a popular programming language
so it’s natural that we’re seeing a
huge number of attacks on PHP
applications and websites.
The use of pre-built plugins
containing PHP vulnerabilities
is also leaving businesses open
to attack. Some of these plugins
are not regularly updated by
their developers and are leaving
businesses open to some really
significant vulnerabilities.”
Looking at the wider issues,
our question to the channel is, are
channel security specialist firms
winning out over resellers with
broader service offerings?
Matthew Bruun, Regional
Vice President at Forcepoint, says
he would certainly like to think
so!
“Forcepoint leads the
market with behaviour-based
solutions which focus on users
and their interactions with
critical data. Our channel
partners are empowered through
comprehensive programs to
offer this modern, integrated
approach to cybersecurity. There
is a growing pressure from
enterprises and government
organisations to engage with
channel and technology partners
who deliver integrated solutions
which address critical business
outcomes.
The spending on cybersecurity
to date isn’t working. A collection
of point products generating
thousands of alerts to a security
team isn’t cutting through the
noise to uncover and protect
orchestrate their solutions to
reduce real risk have a leg up.”
Colin Tankard, Managing
Director at Digital Pathways is
emphatic when he says, “Many
resellers do not see data security
as an opportunity, due to its
complexity and do not seem to
be willing to work with specialist
organisations in order to cover
this area of technology.”
Ian Dutton, Security Pre-sales
Manager, Westcon UK&I, says a
platform is a common feature of
many vendors’ portfolios.
“Check Point’s Infinity
offering, for example, provides
advanced, yet relatively easy to
“The use of pre-built plugins containing PHP
vulnerabilities is also leaving businesses open
to attack.”
Neil Lathwood, CTO, Neil Lathwood
against the real threats. With
an integrated, human-centric
solution, Forcepoint can help
companies reduce risk and secure
an environment they increasingly
can’t own or manage.
According to Ryan Weeks,
Chief Information Security
Officer at Datto, security
related business challenges
are inordinately complex and
deploy and manage security that
will cover most organisations
broad needs. There is still a
place for single appliances and
specialisms, but most of the
market a broader set of features
in a single entity will reduce
complexity and costs. For
partners not in the market an
Infinity or Palo Alto Networks
Traps route is a relatively low
overhead route to enter.”
Dave Moss, Security Practice
Lead at distributor Comstor,
believes customers want certainty
and simplicity from their
security, especially in the modern
workplace where mobility is a
given.
“Integrated solutions deliver
up to a point, however, for
reasons of compliance and
regulation there will always be a
need for specialised applications.
What gives confidence to
customers is a partner that can
deploy relevant solutions that
don’t compromise a customer’s
operations and can accommodate
future ambitions: the broader the
vendor’s offering, the better.”
Iain Sinnott, Head of Sales
at VanillaIP, “Security is not
an isolated subject - it is built
in to everything we do. With
our Uboss Cloud Portal, GDPR
requirements are being built
in from the ground up; ‘the
right to be forgotten’ can be a
real challenge if done piece by
piece across multiple systems
but within Uboss, in our
next release, it will be a single
command. By ‘joining the
dots’ and having all the data in
one place, the opportunity to
streamline security and therefore
offer both the partners, and
end users, greater automatic
projection is possible, but we
must not forget security is not a
single check box, it is made up of
multiple layers!”
nearly impossible for the average
SMB to fully understand.
“Partners that have well
rounded offerings that simplify
the security and compliance
challenges of their customers
have a leg up. A broad offering
of security services and software
does not necessarily equal
security though. Partners that
understand the challenges and
52 | Comms Business Magazine | June 2019 www.commsbusiness.co.uk
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