PGP Recruits Channel to Take Encryption to Managed SaaS Model

The managed service provider (MSP) model, attractive to vendors and VARs for outlining predictable costs, measurable ROI and a recurring revenue stream, has encouraged PGP Corp., a global leader in enterprise data protection to launch an MSP network recently.

PGP sees its MSP program as a cost-effective way to broaden access of its encryption solutions to mid-market and small businesses through a worldwide network of MSPs, said Marc Bricino, director of business development at PGP, based in Menlo Park, Calif.

PGP’s program is timely as the growth of hosted services, specifically hosted applications or SaaS (software as a service), are driving managed services revenue growth in the United States, according to a recent report from researcher In-Stat.

The researcher forecasts that hosted application revenues will grow from $8 billion in 2008 to $16 billion by 2012.

Another recent market study released by Ovum and commissioned by Cisco, projects that the global market for four managed services (metro Ethernet, IP VPNs, IP voice, and security) is growing at a compound annual growth rate of 18 percent. Ovum forecasts that the market will be worth $66 billion by 2012.

Bricino said PGP’s program will enable existing VARs and new partners to offer a software-as-a-service (SaaS) version of PGP’s Whole Disk Encryption software, which provides comprehensive and automatic full-disk encryption, delivering quick and cost-effective protection for data on PCs, laptops, and removable media.

‘VARs will get margins of at least 30 percent gross on MSRP, enjoy recurring revenues, and benefit from our excellent training and help-desk support,” said Bricino. “The program is free to VARs, who will be billed monthly in arrears.”

PGP’s MSP network is open to existing PGP gold and silver partners.

He added that VARs will likely gain most traction from the program with SMB customers, which usually don’t have the budget, IT resources or infrastructure in place to support their data with enterprise-class security strategies and solutions.

“Our SMB customers are a good fit for a managed service,” said Ralph Figueiredo, director of business development at Aurora Enterprises, a Torrance, Calif.-based IT consultancy specializing in data security and compliance solutions. Aurora is one of PGP’s VARs that will become an MSP.

Figerireado said the PGP SaaS will help it to solve the security needs of SMBs as well as a wide range of customers across various highly regulated industries that all need encryption as part of their overall security strategy.