Avant, Trustwave Team To Boost Managed Security Sales For Partners

Master agent Avant has teamed with security-on-demand provider Trustwave to put cybersecurity services, solutions, and IT talent in the hands of channel partners.

Many businesses are grappling with multiple security products in their environments and no easy way to manage the array of disparate solutions. At the same time, plenty of solution providers, especially agents, have shied away from selling security services to their end customers.

"Trusted advisors are becoming more powerful and are getting a seat at the table with some of the largest clients out there. Now they can say they have an offering that can take all [the customer's] security tools and fully manage them with [Security operations centers] SOCs and people that these businesses don’t have today," said Drew Lydecker, president and co-founder of Chicago-based Avant.

[Related: Avant, BluLogix Partner To Give Partners Rebilling Power For Cloud Services]

Trustwave offers threat, vulnerability and compliance management services and technologies. The provider today has more than 3 million business customers in 96 countries. Together, Avant partners will have access to Trustwave’s managed security services portfolio that they can use protect their business customers from cybercrime, while helping these companies protect their data and reduce risk, the two companies told CRN.

The Trustwave partnership will help Avant partners address the shortage of IT talent by pairing its in-house staff of security experts with businesses to assess their risks and proactively protect their networks and data, Lydecker said. Trustwave can scale from small SMBs to large enterprise accounts.

"Best of breed security products that are out there today, coupled with the shortage of IT talent, is the sweet spot for Trustwave, which is able to do things that, quite honestly, most IT staffs don't have the capability or people to be able to do," he said.

Many businesses make the mistake of focusing their efforts on several security tools that they believe will solve their problems, but it's often a misguided approach to security, said Steven Baer, vice president of systems engineers for TrustWave.

"Security doesn't have to be scary, and cybersecurity has to be part of the discussion," he said. "Most organizations have the wherewithal to defend, but not the ability to identify. It's about getting in front of things before they become bigger issues."

The new relationship also gives Avant partners access to Spiderlabs, Trustwave's elite team of ethical hackers, forensic investigators and researchers that help businesses and government agencies fight cybercrime.

One of the first exercises that Trustwave Spiderlabs can do for a partner's end customer is "threat hunt" to determine what a customer needs and what they should be doing from a security perspective, baer said.

"If you ever wanted to know if an adversary has been on your network and what they are doing, this is the team that can find that out," he said.

Avant is the first master agent to forge a channel sales relationship with Trustwave. AVANT has also joined Trustwave's own Partner Program. The master agent revealed the new relationship on Tuesday, and it's already become an instant hit with its partner base, Lydecker said.

"Security can be a little scary for some partners, especially agents, who haven't focused on [security] in the past, but to go into their customers and introduce Trustwave into that relationship – that's a game-changer."