Cisco Rethinks Security With AMP for Endpoints

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CISCO PARTNER SUMMIT — Cisco on Tuesday introduced new capabilities for its AMP (Advanced Malware Protection) for Endpoints and Cisco ONE Advanced Security, a route to purchase the new product.

The vendor called the announcement, made at Cisco Partner Summit 2016, a new approach to endpoint security. There are currently 5.7 million active AMP for Endpoint connectors, according to Cisco.

“With this launch we’re focusing on Cisco’s next generation of endpoint technology,” said Tom Stitt, director of product marketing for the security business group at Cisco. It is delivered as a subscription-based, software-as-a-service (Saas) model, either in the cloud or on premises.

AMP for Endpoints is delivered as a lightweight connector, protects Windows, Mac, Linux, Android, and, it’s an integrated architecture rather than a standalone product that provides continuous monitoring from the endpoint to the edge to the cloud.

AMP for Endpoints is a technology that resides on the endpoint device and prevents attacks and blocks malware in real time; detects threats via continuous monitoring; and responds and remediates incidents.

Some product features: built-in AV detection engine; cognitive threat analytics addition; command-line visibility; improved endpoint search; and new dashboard UI, according to Cisco.{ad}

“The business outcome that we’re driving with this product launch is about decreasing time to detection,” said Stitt.

According to a 2016 Cisco Midyear Security Report, Cisco has been decreasing detection from days – the typical industry standard is around 100 days to detect a compromise to hours – with the goal of driving that figure down to minutes, noted Stitt.

Also announced Tuesday was Cisco ONE Advanced Security, an extension of Cisco ONE Software, the vendor’s software licensing program, for AMP for Endpoints.

Cisco is making three new advanced security suites available: Threat Defense for Data Center; Threat Defense for WAN and Edge; and, Policy and Threat Defense for Access.

Each suite provides a single predefined, prepackaged offer with key security products and services.

“[Cisco ONE] ties in with the Cisco security software buying models that we have for our partners and our customers to make …

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… consuming the Cisco security innovation simpler and easier,” said Stitt. The other security software buying models include, software volume purchasing, security advantage, and security ELA.

Dave Gronner, senior manager for security go-to-market with Cisco’s global partner organization, said that the endpoint security market segment is growing by 50 percent per year, exposing big opportunities for partners.

“Cisco partners have the ability to go back into the AMP security installed customer base and lead from the endpoints,” he said, which also means partners can deliver a higher level of security effectiveness.{ad}

Gronner suggests that partners can expand their security practice with recurring revenue streams and enable managed services, including breach investigation and incident-response services.

“Partners can expect to expand average deal sizes by 25 percent, plus in very high-growth segments,” he said.