Seceon Puts AI to Work for the “Fortune 5 Million”

Cybersecurity firm Seceon today launched a channel partner program for managed security services providers (MSSPs) that service small to mid-size businesses (SMBs). The goal is to allow smaller partners to deliver enterprise-grade security services to multiple smaller customers at an affordable cost using minimal resources.

Chandra Pandey, Seceon founder and CEO, told The VAR Guy that most SMBs can’t afford to have tools that range beyond a basic firewall or identity management service, much less invest the resources needed to staff a more advanced solution. “That market isn’t just underserved,” he says. “It’s ignored.”

It’s a catch-22 problem, he explains. SMBs haven’t had access to solutions they can afford to deploy on their own because of the complexity associated with high-level security offerings, so they turn to MSPs. But the tools that service providers have at their disposal aren’t appropriate to use across multiple customers.

Ron Culler, CTO at Secure Designs, calls his micro and small customers the “F5M.” He’s using Seceon’s Open Threat Management (OTM) platform to provide advanced security solutions to smaller businesses with a staff of fewer than 10. Since many partners in this space have numerous small clients rather than a few large ones, it’s critical that the security solution allows MSSP analysts to monitor and respond to a large number of customers simultaneously.

“Through our MSSP program we are now providing a path to market that provides enterprises with a robust level of protection, and partners with the ability to provide value-added services that they can build a profitable business around,” says Pandey.

Pandey says that most security tools are forensic in nature, but that OTM allows for real-time analysis. Its multitenancy capabilities allow partners to keep capital costs at a reasonable level.

“Seceon’s product is compelling for us because it sheds more light on the network without having to go in there and load up a lot more systems and install a lot more software,” says Culler. “It’s given us the ability to get insight into what’s actually going through a customer’s network.”

The new offering is in part a response to the growing trend of verticalization within the channel, and both Pandey and Culler see big advantages in regulatory-heavy industries such as finance, healthcare and retail. It’s also beneficial for partners managing businesses where network traffic doesn’t necessarily originate with IT, but rather with lines of business.

“Security is everywhere, in everything, and has a play in every IT function,” says Culler.

For SDI, the beauty of Seceon’s solution is its machine learning aspect and its predictive and behavioral analytics capabilities. As the system learns how to handle alerts and attackers’ behavior choices, becoming more efficient in the process, it frees up staff and resources and lessens the burden on partners.

“As traffic passes and new devices come on the network, it learns these things and has more capabilities,” says Culler. “The AI and machine learning in the system takes away the traditional work associated with a SIM environment.”

OTM is a subscription-based platform immediately available to all Seceon partners. The company offers a one-day training to accelerate partner enablement.