Blue Coat looks to SME (actually midsize) market for new opportunities

Stephen Withers
Monday, 11 April 2011 18:23

Business IT - Security

Security vendor Blue Coat has previously concentrated on the enterprise market for its hardware products. Now the company is taking aim at medium sized businesses.

Tell an Australian that you're aiming a product at SMEs with at least 100 employees, and you'll get a funny look. That size operation is well beyond the local definition that sees small business top out at 20 employees.

That said, Blue Coat is looking to provide enterprise-class web security to smaller businesses at an affordable price and requiring a bare minimum of technical expertise to install and run.

The ProxyOne appliance "is pure security," Blue Coat's senior director of product marketing, Sasi Murthy, told iTWire. It is intended for installation immediately inside the firewall, and the default settings make it useful with no further configuration.

Ms Murthy explained that the prevalence of web-based malware - especially on social media and networking sites - means that SMEs need enterprise-grade protection, yet are limited by their financial and technical resources.

The company's WebPulse security service provides real-time protection for 75 million users of its other products, so Blue Coat has excellent visibility of the threat landscape. This same service - "a faster and more comprehensive threat detection solution" - is used so that ProxyOne can deliver enterprise-grade protection.

What's in it for smaller companies? FInd out on page 2.