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October 20, 1997, Section: Internet Reseller

Networld+Interop Showcases Products, Programs -- All eyes are on Internet security

By Charlotte Dunlap

Atlanta -- IP security was a major theme of the Networld+Interop trade show, where a slew of companies unveiled products and channel programs for authentication, encryption, firewall and VPN technologies.

Security Dynamics Technologies Inc. outlined its channel strategy and rolled out a formal reseller program and two-tiered distribution agreement.

The Bedford, Mass.-based company, which has grown its indirect sales presence from zero to 28 percent of its business since last summer, described its SecureWorld Partner Program as the umbrella over three VAR groupings:Secure Partners Alliance represents the company's most prestigious, hand-picked partners; Secure Solution Provider, which is based on a commitment level in revenue, enables resellers to either buy direct from Security Dynamics or from a two-tiered distributor; and Secure Product Resellers are described as the masses that resell the company's products.

The company signed a distribution deal with Tech Data Corp., Clearwater, Fla., to serve as its distributor and will announce a second U.S. distributor at the end of this month, said Gary Rogers, Security Dynamics' vice president of world sales.

The company, which traditionally has provided remote access security software for the Unix and NT platforms, broadened its business about one year ago to address internal enterprise network security through identification and authentication capabilities.

At that time, the company decided it needed to establish a channel presence in order to accelerate its business, Rogers said.

He said the company is striving to cater to its newly established resellers by not raising the issue of channel conflict.

"We want to keep a level playing field for our VARs and not favor our direct-sales force, so we asked the territory managers [direct-sales managers] to focus on limited developed accounts, '' of which there are 15 in the United States, Rogers said.

The company plans to grow its channel presence to 50 percent, in terms of U.S. revenue, by the end of next year, officials said.

Separately, the company also unveiled an upgrade of its user authentication software, called ACE/server 3.1. The company added administrative ease-of-use features, officials said.

In the future, Security Dynamics will move beyond authentication and remote access security to offer security at the applications level with technology including secure single sign-on.

Security companies continue to merge their technologies. During the show, Integralis Inc., Kirkland, Wash., and Raptor Systems Inc., Waltham, Mass., agreed to integrate their technologies primarily to ensure management of security systems throughout the enterprise network.

Under the agreement, Integralis' MIMEsweeper technology will be integrated into Raptor Systems' flagship Eagle firewall family. Complete integration will take about six months, company officials said.

MIMEsweeper technology provides virus control and management for E-mail and Web communications, including phrase analysis and the ability to detect confidential data and inappropriate material.

Fortress Technologies Inc., Tampa, Fla., released a firewall product said to complement other leading firewall technology by attempting to protect the internal communication of an enterprise network.

The virtual private networks vendor unveiled two desktop firewall products, NetFortress HeatSeeker and NetFortress HeatSeeker Pro. The low-end product is available for free, and the pro version will ship next month to enterprise network resellers starting at $695.

Officials said the products block hostile attacks from programs including Java, Active X, and Web cookies; Internet services, including inbound FTP and Telnet; NetBios name, session and datagram services; Internet Control Message Protocol (ICMP) attacks; and broadcast storms.