FireEye Dives Into Midmarket With Launch Of FireEye Essentials

Long known as a security stalwart of the enterprise, FireEye is now diving headfirst into the midmarket with the launch of FireEye Essentials, a move it says will present a huge opportunity for its channel partners.

The launch segments the FireEye Global Threat Management Platform into two editions: FireEye Power and FireEye Essentials. FireEye Power is what might be more familiar to most partners, as it's an enterprise-grade offering that provides broad visibility, integrated workflow and extensive intelligence. The Milpitas, Calif.-based company will now also be offering FireEye Essentials, which is a lower-cost, lower-complexity offering aimed at the midmarket or enterprise edge customer.

The offering was unveiled at FireEye’s Momentum 2016 sales kickoff event in Las Vegas. In his keynote address at the event, CEO Dave DeWalt called the Essentials launch one of the ’biggest announcements the company has ever made.’

[Related: FireEye Acquires Threat-Intelligence Analyst iSight]

The launch is a vast departure for FireEye, whose technology is often out of the price point for many midmarket customers and frequently beyond their in-house skill set to implement. However, many midmarket customers, which FireEye defines as 5,000 employees or fewer, face the same or similar threats as enterprises, said Chris Carter, vice president of North America channels. That’s a market gap that FireEye is looking to solve, he said.

’The midmarket is also suffering from breaches and they don’t have good solutions in play today to prevent and also track threats. We are going to aggressively launch these products into market and make the customer aware that there is a product to prevent these attacks,’ Carter said. ’I feel like we’re saving the midmarket. It’s a mission.’

Carter, who was just announced as the company's new channel chief, said the Essentials solution presents a massive opportunity for both current and new FireEye channel partners.

’We’re really excited about this. This is our first really channel product, and I think it will make a huge difference in our channel’s success and it will also be a huge product from a revenues and billing perceptive,’ Carter said.

With the launch, Carter said FireEye will be revamping its partner program to heavily incent midmarket partners. While some existing partners cross into the midmarket, Carter said FireEye will also look to recruit around 40 to 60 new partners focused on the space. Carter said that process is already under way and FireEye has seen ’good reception’ and is already starting to ’gain traction.’

Jim Magee, engineering director at Babylon, N.Y.-based G-Net Solutions, said he was looking forward to hearing more about the Essentials solution at the event.

’That’s our bread and butter – the midtier market,’ Magee said. ’Those are our customers. … I’m looking forward to hearing more about Essentials.’

On stage at the event, CEO DeWalt said the Essentials solution would start shipping ’shortly.’