Excel Micro: Beyond Google Apps to McAfee SaaS Security

By samdizzy

Excel Micro, a well-known Google Apps distributor and top 100 cloud services provider, is partnering with McAfee to offer SaaS-based email protection services. The move has strategic implications for both Excel Micro and McAfee, now owned by Intel (NASDAQ: INTC).

Excel Micro is pushing deeper into fast-growth cloud and compliance markets such as email security, encryption. The distributor, which essentially is a cloud aggregator, will now offer several McAfee-based cloud services to its partner and customer base:

Excel Micro already has a big footprint in the Google Apps for business market. The company represents 3,500 resellers worldwide. Excel Micro also has relationships with ZixCorp (policy-based hosted email encryption) and YouSendIt (as a Master Reseller.

McAfee, meanwhile, also works with a range of cloud-oriented distributors and channel partners. Most notably, McAfee depends heavily on Spam Soap, a SaaS-centric security company that spun out of Inhouse IT, an MSP in Costa Mesa, Calif.