TD Synnex launches free security self-assessments for VMware partners

Solutions aggregator TD Synnex is introducing the ability for WMware partners to offer customers exclusive, free security self-assessments as a way of seeding new business potential.

Worth a total of $27,000 (£22,328), partners will now be able to provide three high-level self-assessments that cover ransomware, cyber security, and vSphere+.

These unique surveys are the brainchild of specialist consultancy CapametriX, a company that VMware has been working alongside for some time, and have been designed to help open new dialogues, gather critical data, as well as generate insights into clients’ strengths and weaknesses.

Sam Darling, cyber security business manager at TD Synnex’s UK business, said partners can leverage this data to position themselves as a trusted security advisor to their customers.

“They can also take that further and become an authoritative source of intelligence and insight in the vertical market segments in which they focus by aggregating of all of their clients’ completed self-assessments and then benchmarking the position of their customers in specific areas,” he explained.

“They could, for example, demonstrate to a client in financial services that their stance on multi-factor authentication, identity protection, or some other facet of security, is not as strong as the one being taken by their peers.”

The assessments have been built on current industry standards and best practices, with the cyber security-orientated option modelled on the NIST standards for the protection of critical infrastructure.

TD Synnex said these frameworks will enable organisations to quickly assess core cyber security capabilities, confirm their strengths, as well as identify potential knowledge gaps and weaknesses.

Upon completion, the surveys will generate a recommended action plan that can be used to mitigate risk and help improve performance.

Despite these new self-assessments being focused on specific areas, the aggregator said there will also be opportunities to “cross-pollinate” and extend the dialogue on other areas of IT.

“We have already been working with a limited number of partners to take the self-assessments out and our experience shows that, in addition to the survey area covered, discussions soon open up on other aspects of cyber security, virtualisation and management,” Darling added. “The conversion rate has been high.”