Distributor VADition has announced a cloud-based managed offering for resellers using technology from Fortinet (FTNT) to provide logging, auditing and security analysis. The FortiAnalyzer will be offered as a white-label service from a rented data centre by VADition with the distie providing technical support and reporting services.
According to Barrie Desmond, business development director at VADition, the new service will be part of a push into cloud which should be lucrative for its 300 or so partners: “If they are not making 25 percent+ [on the new service] then they are just giving it away.”
Compliance requirements
Although a new direction for the firm, Desmond contends that the organisation is well set up for the delivery of cloud services and more importantly, channel partners would rather buy from VADition than have to pass customers to a potential competitor.
VADition is targeting security compliance requirements with the new FortiAnalyzer service and Desmond believes that the platform offers a good first step for the channel to sell additional value-added cloud-based software and services on top of a secure infrastructure.
FortiAnalyzer is a hardware-based solution normally aimed at large enterprises that audit and analyse real-time management information from distributed FortiGate appliances – typically for visibility and compliance purposes.
Analysis
In VADition’s managed service model, the FortiAnalyzer technology is managed within VADition’s cloud infrastructure and, using Fortinet virtual domain (VDOM) technology, can command multiple instances of client deployments on behalf of partners. The granular management information, configurable via a graphical web interface, is presented to end-customers as a white-label service; using each individual partner’s branding if required.
VADition partner Pasporte has recently adopted the service. Says Steve Bedford, technical director: “With a lot of our customers in the retail industry, we understand what a huge issue PCI DSS compliance is. The FortiAnalyzer service has meant that we are able to offer customers ongoing best-of-breed security analysis at a fraction of the cost of deploying a standalone platform.”
