Guj SMEs catch bundled network security bug

An increased focus of network security companies in Gujarat towards small and medium enterprises (SMEs) seems to be a tell-tale sign of things to come in near future. From stray purchases of network security products, SMEs in Gujarat now seem to be moving towards bundled products and unified threat management (UTM) products.

"Companies are increasingly migrating towards the integrated security solutions. Security per se is gaining top priority in the IT budget allocation of SMEs. According to a recent survey on global business leaders security figured among the top five business priorities. Another trend which is quite visible in the security solution market is the demand for the remote office security solution, particularly SSL VPN, because of increasing number of mobile workers accessing the organisational resources and network from outside the organisational premises," says Hemal Patel, managing director, Elitecore Technologies.

SMEs form around 60 per cent of Elitecore's market share, which markets UTM products under the brand name of 'Cyberoam'. For SMEs, the company offers a range of Cyberoam UTM appliances, including CR 35i, CR 50 ia, CR 200i and CR 300i, which manage blended threats, including viruses, worms, Trojans, spyware, phishing, pharming and more. "Cyberoam delivers the complete range of security features such as stateful inspection firewall, VPN – SSL and IPSec, gateway anti-virus and anti-spyware, gateway anti-spam, intrusion prevention system, content filtering in addition to bandwidth management and multiple link management over a single platform," adds Patel.

Similarly, Virtual Netcomm Pvt. Ltd., the sole value-added distributor in India for Nasdaq-listed Blue Coat Systems of California and also distributor of network security brands like Oversi and Palo Alto, recently began offering products to SMEs at special tariffs. According to Rajendra Shah, managing director, Virtual Netcomm Pvt. Ltd., the company offers Blue Coat and Palo Alto at a starting price of Rs 2.5 lakhs.

However, according to Nirav Shah, president of Gujarat Electronics & Software Industries Association (GESIA), the penetration among SMEs for such bundled and UTM products is only so far as 10 per cent. "It is only among the younger generations that have begun to join these SMEs that have realised the importance of such products. Other than that, it is those SMEs who have burnt their fingers by way of loss of data or data theft that have realised importance of spending on such network security products," adds Shah.

Meanwhile, according to Shah, the other reasons forcing SMEs to opt for such products include blended threats, ease of installation and use, higher total cost of ownership for point solutions, and troubleshooting ease.