RSA Upgrades SecurWorld Channel Program, DLP Offering

In an effort to be more inclusive of all its security offerings to its channel partners, RSA has updated its SecurWorld Partner Program to focus more on specialties and solutions-specific training.

“We meet with our partners on a regular basis throughout the world at our partner councils, and our planned enhancements for 2012 are based largely on the feedback we’ve received from them,” said Joe Gabriel, director of Global Channels and Alliances at RSA.

The updates focus on two key areas and are designed to enable partners to become experts in certain technologies or products, enabling them to shift to offering solutions rather than specific products, Gabriel said.

Specifically, the changes include:

• Revamping of RSA’s training framework and curriculum: The current training framework is product-centric, Gabriel noted, which is great for learning the individual products but doesn’t do much to help partners learn about RSA from a holistic viewpoint, especially since the company has made some key security acquisitions over the past 12 months or so. With that in mind, RSA is switching to training on two categories of products — Authentication, which includes its authentication products including Adaptive Authentication and Authentication Manager Express; and Security Management, which includes RSA’s enVision, Data Loss Prevention (DLP), eGRC Archer and NetWitness offerings. “We think it’s important our partners be able to tell the solutions story, not just the product story,” Gabriel said.
• Introduction of partner specialties: RSA thinks specializations will help its partners become more of the trusted adviser in particular areas of security. Plus, partners who specialize receive higher rewards than their non-specialty counterparts. “Partners been asking for increased rewards for their training investment, and with this program partners that do that can earn higher deal registration discounts,” Gabriel said.
• New Authorized partner tier: Not wanting to ignore its partners that don’t want to move beyond authentication, however, RSA introduced an Authorized partner tier, offering those partners the ability to earn SecurWorld benefits for bringing incremental business to RSA and acts as a stepping stone of sorts if they choose to develop a deeper relationship with RSA.

RSA also announced upgrades to its DLP portfolio that address two issues channel partners are constantly up against: the consumerization of IT and simplifying DLP management.

“DLP is becoming more important in the enterprise as more companies deal with their employees connecting their own devices to the network,” said Ash Devata, senior manager of DLP Products. “Historically it’s all been about compliance. But now, because of the new breed of threats, companies are understanding they need to get their house in order and lock down, secure their data.”

To that end, the enhancements — 79 in total — focus on ways to minimize the risk associated with BYOD as well as giving companies and partners a simpler way to make DLP happen.

“With BYOD we are first assuming the device is going to be unmanaged and presents multiple risks. So phase one is monitoring what information is getting downloaded on the device,” Devata said. “If the data is sensitive and device is not secure, we can stop information from getting on to the device. There are no agents to install.”

The technology monitors e-mail downloads via ActiveSync and Outlook Web Access to stem the flow of sensitive information onto unmanaged devices.

And it offers similar support for virtual desktops and virtual applications. RSA has partnered with Citrix and VMware to provide coverage for the XenDesktop, XenApp and VMware View solutions. “Both are big in the partner community, and they are asking us for this because currently there is no visibility into what customers are putting on those devices,” he said.

In addition, RSA has developed a new policy workflow manager and risk remediation manager module for the simplification of DLP, which partners can customize based on their and their end users’ requirements to create better workflow and better process around DLP requirements.

“We’ve seen a shift to more companies wanting to use DLP as a visibility tool,” Devata said. “It’s like one our partners told us he tells his customers: ‘Robbers are coming to steal this type of stuff from you. Put that important stuff in the locker.’”