It’s a challenging time for small to medium businesses (SMB’s) when it comes to cyber security. According to Symantec’s 2016 Internet Security Threat Report, 65 per cent of all attacks targeted small and mid-sized organisations.
To help SMBs meet this challenge, Westcon-Comstor has enhanced its cloud security offering for the SMB market with the addition of Symantec’s Endpoint Protection Cloud (SEPC) to its cloud marketplace, Westcon-Comstor BlueSky. “This extends our longstanding relationship with Symantec’s cloud solutions, adding to the Symantec Email and Web cloud security services we have been providing since 2010” Westcon-Comstor’s APAC VP cloud and services, Darryl Grauman, said.
What makes SMEs such an attractive target is that the attackers know that cost and resource constraints mean that they typically have a lower security stance than enterprise and government organisations. A recent report found that only 52 per cent of businesses conduct regular security risk tests, and only 47 per cent of businesses run security awareness training for staff. On top of that, less than 19 per cent of businesses have (or even plan to have) a senior person responsible for cyber security; many large businesses don’t have CISOs, while many smaller businesses don’t have dedicated IT security people at all.
“Many SMEs turn to their IT providers to help bolster their internal security capability,” Westcon-Comstor director, cloud and services solutions A/NZ, Rhys Shannon said. “SMEs need security solutions that provide a high level of protection, but are easy and robust enough that IT generalists can install, deploy and manage them.”
Symantec Endpoint Protection Cloud (SEPC) is designed to meet the requirements of these SMB customers by delivering next-generation endpoint security features without requiring in-depth security knowledge and experience to deploy and manage it. The solution provides advanced security controls including machine learning, software reputation, application behaviour and Memory Exploit Mitigation to ensure that users’ machines remain secure. Managed from a single cloud-based console, SEPC provides a comprehensive security solution of endpoint protection, management, mobility, and encryption designed for the SMB market to protect a variety of devices such as PCs, Macs, tablets, mobile devices (iOS and Android), and servers. The initial setup is quick and users can be adding the security to their company owned and personal devices in under five minutes. With Symantec Endpoint Protection Cloud, reseller partners can manage their end-customers’ security both in and outside of the corporate network, via a centralised console, allowing partners to seamlessly deploy, manage, and secure their end-customers’ devices quickly and with minimal resources.
Through the Westcon-Comstor’s cloud marketplace, BlueSky, provisioning new users is as simple as adding to the monthly bill, and if the business downsizes, the number of users can be reduced accordingly, allowing for the constant fluctuation of staff size that many small businesses experience. Key to the Symantec solution from Westcon-Comstor is the ability through BlueSky for the customer to include Symantec Web Security and Email Security. “There’s real value in deploying a unified Symantec solution across email, endpoint and web. While these products are point solutions, they all feed intelligence into the Symantec Global Intelligence Network providing real-time threat information back into all of the cloud solutions enhancing the security that Symantec customers receive,” Shannon said.
The Westcon-Comstor BlueSky platform is a revolutionary approach to performance management of the entire cloud services delivery lifecycle. It radically simplifies order, delivery and management of cloud services for resellers allowing them to enjoy a high-level, real-time overview of product usage, top customers, revenue, profit and much more. To help partners get up to speed with the Symantec Endpoint Protection Cloud solution and start finding opportunity in their customer base, the Westcon-Comstor Cloud team are running a series of training webinars and have developed a partner enablement kit.
For more information on Symantec Endpoint Protection, to join the Westcon-Comstor BlueSky platform, or to sign up for the Webex training and partner enablement kit go to http://www.ausmarketing.westcongroup.com/SymantecEndpointProtectionCloudsignup.
