At Trend Micro we pride ourselves on our thriving partner ecosystem, and the Microsoft World Partner Conference in Toronto last week was a fantastic opportunity to connect with the wider ecosystem.
As a sponsor of the event, it was a fantastic opportunity for us to continue building key industry relationships, sharing knowledge and, of course, highlighting all the reasons why Deep Security (our Hybrid Cloud Security solution) is one of the world’s most popular and effective security platforms for Hybrid Cloud deployments including Azure and other cloud platforms.
Driving Adoption
The role of cloud security solution is to drive adoption of the cloud platforms. Often, partners and vendors get consumed with measuring the “consumption” of a cloud platform. While this metric is apt for SaaS apps etc, it is not as relevant to many other cloud apps including security. Security helps with adoption of the cloud when customers can move their workloads quickly to cloud while being able to meet their security and compliance needs. As traditional perimeters are collapsing in a truly boundary-less datacentre, security becomes really important in a seamless migration of workloads between various cloud platforms. With Deep Security, customers know they can seamlessly migrate and manage workloads between their cloud platforms. It provides a comprehensive range of security controls across all cloud platforms with a unified security console and unified security policies to help customers meet their security and compliance needs. It’s hassle-free security at its best. And if you don’t believe me, just ask IDC, which recently rated us the global leader in server security for the sixth straight year.
Simplifying cloud security
The various sessions and conversations at the event validated a few facts that have been driving our product and Go To Market strategy for Deep Security.
Hybrid Cloud penetration is on a rise. We all know that when it comes to the cloud, there’s no such thing as a typical deployment. That multi-national retailer is going to have very different IT requirements to the mid-sized healthcare provider, for example. But what we do know is that organizations are increasingly attracted by the agility, security and scale advantages in hybrid cloud set-ups, and are going further by embracing multiple cloud vendors in these deployments.
Recent research from Veritas Technologies found that three-quarters (74%) of enterprises globally are currently using two or more cloud infrastructure vendors to support their workload requirements, while 23% are using four or more. The benefits range from combatting latency challenges to overcoming the risks associated with vendor lock-in, meeting compliance requirements around data sovereignty, and even optimizing the performance of workloads.
But with business-critical workloads in the public cloud set to double in the next 24 months, the need for effective security to protect critical data becomes even more acute. That’s where Deep Security comes in. It’s been built specifically to combat the challenges associated with managing and securing multiple cloud platforms. Security has to be seamless, tightly integrated and hassle-free and nowhere is this more true than when we’re talking about the cloud. Get the wrong product in there and it could miss critical cloud-specific threats, or cause performance issues – undermining all the reasons you moved your data there in the first place.
Converged sales at WPC
At WPC this week our messaging focused on the need to have tight integration with the cloud platforms. We have spent a lot of time developing a platform which offers maximum security while minimizing management overheads. On Azure, this means integration into the Azure Security Center, providing a unified dashboard for security and operations data and integration into the Azure Marketplace for seamless procurement of the product. There’s also flexibility when it comes to deployment, with three options available for Deep Security in the Azure Marketplace: SaaS, Virtual Appliance and Software Agent.
But as good as Deep Security is, we know that it’s just one piece of the cloud puzzle for our end customers. That’s where the channel can add value, by offering converged packages of complementary solutions. This not only helps them take all the complexity out of the cloud for these customers, but also helps them to differentiate as a channel player in an increasingly crowded market.
Additionally, Trend Micro has worked hard with other ISVs like Splunk and Chef and our partners to provide a fully integrated stack for channel partners and customers. We’re offering a complete partner stack which service providers can then embed in their sales motion. And thanks to our integration with the Azure Marketplace, purchase and deployment of the solution is made seamless for partners and customers.