Following brief discussions at Channel-Sec, IT Europa invited Kaspersky into a virtual call on the changes it has seen in the market in 2020 and its views on strategies going forward.
This year has meant a shift in working practices and hence sales messages, says Tako Nijssen, MSP Lead for Northern Europe at Kaspersky. “With the shift to working from home, we see the end-point as more important than ever, with their own networks not being as well secured. So we are also seeing a move from basic anti-virus to all the other parts that make up an endpoint solution.”
“As a vendor – we also see the high end enterprise solutions, and see the SMB is still focused on anti-virus but the other areas are getting a lot more interest – like Shadow IT, patch management and so on.”
Mark Olding, presale manager at Kaspersky: “As more people work from home, the endpoint is on of the most important things. We have a greater sense of freedom at home, so the endpoints need to be better protected - making sure we understand how security works, how it is configured properly, ensuring that we look at the control tools to make sure that people are not doing things that they might not do in the office.”
Helping secure the individual using awareness training is important. Being outside the work environment means it is even more important that people know how to spot a threat and how they react. Getting staff educated in security is paramount now, he says.
What should partners be working on in 2020? “I suggest that partners take on board the responsibilities of people working from home, securing the softer side of IT and making sure all employees can defend themselves, says Tako Nijssen. That goes with the partners moving to having this advisory role towards customers. “Awareness programmes are usually focused on big enterprises. In the SMB space, people might find it hard to find the right solution to train their people. An automated program like ours enables the SMB to train their personnel.
For the partners as well the stress comes through the increase in attacks, so partners should be able to show the strength of their solution. Customers are also looking for flexibility and the move to Opex rather than Capex – a revenue-based solution based on pay per month is proving attractive in these difficult times, he suggests.
Mark Olding: “SMBs are concentrating on keeping their businesses running, so we are seeing a real move from annual billing to a month-by-month model as they are not sure of the future. They are still looking for the best protection for their money.”
Plans for next year are hard, says Tako “ It is still very uncertain – everyone has to be flexible. The marketing is still shifting in favour of the MSP model, but being an MSP is not longer a differentiator. We say that the MSP should look for a good vendor, and look to monetise those extra features from the vendor. This can give you an edge over the competition who can only offer A/V. If you can show the customer why they should have MDM or mobile security this helps you stand out. So invest some time in getting to know the product properly and explain it to the customers.”
Mark “It is important to take the strategic view, but also cover all the bases. One of the key things right now is the ability to manage remotely; to not have to go to a server to manage security. That’s quite a big thing. Ultimately SMBs will be targeted and breached, so push the training and ensure people understand the security risks. We are talking a lot about this now. And we are seeing the moves to other technologies like Office 365 and what else is needed with this product. Likewise, understanding Azure and AWS is key in this transformation ere which has been accelerated in 2020.”
Tako: “In 2021 we expect to see more resellers moving to MSP and more MPSs sign up with us. Flexibility and the move to the cloud continue to be the biggest trends for 2021.”
To view recording, please visit:herehttps://lnkd.in/gxPcg-W
