The VAR Guy

June 13, 2011

2 Min Read
RackForce Joins Astaro Partner Community for Iaas Offering

The VAR Guy has been keeping close tabs on Internet security company Astaro. Although recently purchased by  Sophos, Astaro remains a standalone channel-focused company, and it’s latest announcement that RackForce has joined its partner community is further proof of that. RackForce is part of Canada-based service provider ICT, providing IaaS and now, apparently is one of the first companies deploying Astaro’s portfolio in an IaaS fashion. Details follow …

RackForce has joined forces with Astaro in part because it sees Astaro’s technology as a close fit for its own cloud services, and the UTM security backbone of Astaro’s products is part of what brought ICT into the Astaro fold. RackForce customers now can take advantage of Astaro’s security know-how, and deeper security is what RackForce has been looking to give its customers for a while.

Both Astaro and RackForce see this as a symbiotic relationship, with a mutual revenue opportunity. But our resident blogger thinks the channel will see the most benefit from this partnership simply by name recognition. (The VAR Guy knows how brands can impact the sale — just look at Dell Compellent.) Astaro’s deployment in the field by a big partner such as ICT could send that ripple deep within the channel, since both companies plan on continuing their relationship and creating  Astaro-ICT solutions tailored for service providers, MSPs and other large telecommunication companies.

Is there an Astaro wave coming? The VAR Guy thinks since Sophos Global Channel Chief Steve Hale has promised a “do no harm” integration strategy through meshing the best of both companies, a Sophos/Astaro momentum could seriously go against the likes of McAfee, Symantec and other security players in the channel.

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