AVG Unveils CloudCare 2.1 at CES, Tops 1,000 Resellers

More than 1,000 resellers have signed up to use AVG CloudCare to manage customer endpoints, according to the company. With that milestone, AVG is launching an update of CloudCare, which takes the small-business IT management platform another step forward with additional protection, flexibility and management enhancements.

Unveiled at the 2013 Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas, CloudCare Version 2.1 has several enhancements, including:

AVG CloudCare was designed to provide resellers and managed service providers (MSPs) focused on the small-business market with a free, cloud-based administration platform. Using CloudCare, resellers and MSPs can remotely deploy and manage AVG's antivirus and content filtering products using a single console.

Another element of CloudCare is the beta version of AVG Remote IT, which is another free tool for resellers to remotely access and troubleshoot issues on customers' devices from anywhere.

CloudCare launched in October 2012. According to AVG, the platform was created to help resellers solve two key problems: their customers' expectations often exceeding their willingness to pay for services and the lack of tools available for small businesses (most are for enterprises, AVG noted).

"Small-business owners already have enough to think about without having to deal with complicated IT administration. Now, AVG CloudCare allows them—through their preferred IT provider—to have managed, pay-as-you-go IT services so they can fully concentrate on their businesses, knowing their IT is in good hands," said AVG CEO JR Smith in a prepared statement during CloudCare's fall launch.