Bhaskar Bakthavatsalu, Regional Director, India and Saarc, Check Point Software Technologies, spoke to Ramdas S about the company’s plans for the security market
Why did Check Point decide to move from a niche security vendor to a mainstream security solutions company?
In 1993, we were one of the first security companies to set shop in India. Till 2004, we were focused mostly on enterprise network security.
However, looking at the changing security threat landscape, we decided to branch out and made several acquisitions in the endpoint security, mobile security, encryption, and Intrusion Prevention Systems (IPS) space. Notable acquisitions include Zone Labs (endpoint security), PointSec (mobile security), NFR Security (IPS), and Nokia’s security division.
Today, we have successfully integrated technologies from these acquisitions into our product portfolio. And, we can claim to be a complete security company offering solutions for both enterprises and consumers.
But your consumer security products are not available in the Indian market.
That is because we are yet to launch our consumer security product line here. However, we do have a customer base that has directly downloaded products.
Our bestseller ZoneAlarm is one of the most popular desktop firewalls, and we have built a complete suite of security tools around it. We use our OEM partner Kaspersky’s signature on our antivirus products.
We are planning to launch the consumer product line in 2011 in India.
Where does Check Point stand in the Indian enterprise security market?
We estimate the overall enterprise security market to be about $250 million in 2010. As per IDC and Frost & Sullivan figures, we are among the top two companies in most segments including VPN, enterprise firewall, UTM and DLP. In terms of revenues, however, the reports peg Cisco ahead of us.
What are the new products Check Point has launched recently?
Check Point has launched its Software Blade Architecture and our focus has been on popularizing this new concept.
With new security threats emerging, organizations are often forced to upgrade their infrastructure. This means buying new and expensive hardware.
With our Software Blade Architecture, customers need not buy a new UTM or firewall. The architecture is scalable and can handle more traffic, users and threats. Customers just need to buy extra licenses.
What is the recent news on your channel front?
We are a channel-centric company and have three national distributors—Wep Solutions (formerly Select Technologies), Inflow Technologies and Texonic Instruments who manage a reseller network of 365. Out of these, 50 are certified Gold or Silver partners.
About 75 percent of our business comes through these partners. Some of our Gold partners include leading internet service providers and national systems integrators such as Wipro.
We have also set up an excellent third-party services network by employing our distributors and a neutral service provider, Genpact. This ensures that our resellers can pick up orders and assure best customer support and service. We plan to sign up more such neutral service providers in coming months.
How will entry of telecom companies into IT space influence the traditional channels?
Almost all major telecom companies are also selling our products to their customers.
Most telecom service providers have stable infrastructure and manpower to support the managed security space. Hence, it is inevitable that enterprise security vendors want to work closely with them. But these telecom companies would require the IT channel to reach customers especially in the commercial sector.
So over the next few years, we will see telecom companies working closely with IT channels to create value-added solutions for customers.