Trend Micro and the Future of Software-as-a-Service Security: Expanding Optimized Platforms for SMBs, Enterprises and Service Providers

CUPERTINO, Calif., June 21 /PRNewswire/ -- Trend Micro laid out today its long-term vision for bringing "SaaS that Fits" security solutions to small and medium businesses, enterprises, and xSPs. As part of its strategy, Trend Micro will be increasing infrastructure investments in and further developing its historically-successful SaaS portfolio into three platforms – hosted for SMBs, hybrid for Enterprises, and service provider platforms, each of which will provide the delivery structure for both current and future Trend Micro SaaS Security solutions.

Overall, the future of SaaS Security appears bright: Infonetics Research recorded growth of 70 percent in 2009 and IDC, in their Worldwide Security as a Service 2009-13 Forecast, predicts a market of $2B this year. Within the last 5 years, Trend Micro has branched out from its software-provider roots by investing heavily into the creation of a SaaS infrastructure that delivers high-availability SaaS applications for over 100,000 SaaS customers spanning various markets and countries. As customers become more comfortable with SaaS security, this number is expected to grow dramatically.

Taking into account this growing SaaS customer base, and an increasingly complex threat environment, Trend Micro has designed its SaaS infrastructure that has the mission-critical fortitude to hold data centers that stretch across the globe, process millions of customer queries, and handle an exponentially growing number of threats per day.  

"For years, we've tailored SaaS solutions to the needs of the channel and customers in two business segments – hosted solutions for small to medium businesses and cloud solutions for xSPs," said John Maddison, senior vice president of SaaS, and general manager of the xSP business, Trend Micro. "Now, we're gaining traction within the enterprise market and expanding our SaaS models to include hybrid solutions. We're committed to growing our investment and expertise within SaaS security, hitting new markets with new solutions that meet the management, control and privacy needs of businesses and service providers all over the world."  

Hosted Security: Channel-friendly, quickly implemented, multi-purpose

Hosted security is ideal for small business and medium-sized companies with limited IT staff resources. Trend Micro provides a complete, channel-friendly portfolio of hosted endpoint and hosted email security products. In addition, channel partners may now use Trend Micro Worry-Free Remote Manager to securely monitor and manage multiple Trend Micro Worry-Free and Hosted Security clients across distributed locations.

Trend Micro™ Worry-Free™ Business Security Services for small offices protects multiple PCs and notebooks located in or out of the office from viruses and other threats. With single-install security, customers can centrally manage security from anywhere without adding a server or installing server software. Trend Micro hosts and updates the service for you so customers may easily manage and review security from anywhere.

According to IDC, the number of customers implementing hosted email security for the first time will grow by more than 50 percent in 2010. Trend Micro is already meeting this demand with Trend Micro Hosted Email Security, which provides industry-leading, always up-to-the-minute email security with no maintenance required by IT staff for more than 30,000 companies worldwide. Trend Micro Hosted Email Security also includes a contractually-binding service level agreement that commits to stopping 99+ percent of spam and other email -based threats before they reached your network – or money back from Trend Micro.

Trend Micro Hosted Email Security is rated by West Coast Labs benchmarking as #1 for anti-spam, and now also includes Web reputation technology that is rated #1 by independent NSS Labs benchmarking for stopping malicious URLs embedded in email and other malware.

"Trend Micro Hosted Email Security gives our customers a very high level of email security – including excellent new protection for stopping malicious URLs embedded in email - with no maintenance required by their IT staff. It's easy to sell, easy to install, and easy to support—that's a whole lot of 'easy,'" said Tom Ruffolo, president of eSecurityToGo.

Hybrid SaaS: Uniting cloud protection with on-premise virtual appliance

For enterprises who want on-premise control, along with faster, lighter in-the-cloud protection, the hybrid approach provides all the advantages of SaaS while minimizing the downsides. Enterprises have understood the benefits of this hybrid approach, but—up until now—have been forced to build, maintain, and manage disparate products and services to try to realize these benefits.  In a recent study conducted by Infonetics, 50 percent of companies surveyed are taking the "homebrew" approach of building their own hybrid models. These "homebrewers" showed nearly-unanimous interest in integrated hybrid solutions, with 93 percent stating they would either consider deploying or would definitely deploy an integrated hybrid SaaS solution from one vendor.

"We asked respondents a simple question: Do you believe that the cost (in time and resources) of deploying hybrid solutions for e-mail security could be significantly reduced if you purchased an integrated solution from a single vendor? Eighty percent of respondents said yes. Looking back at the question about how respondents currently manage hybrid solutions it's easy to see why the cost savings could be significant," said Jeff Wilson, principal analyst, network security, Infonetics.

Responding to this demand, Trend Micro announced today the latest version of its flagship messaging product, InterScan Messaging Security– purpose-built as a hybrid SaaS email security solution that unites in-the-cloud protection with a VMware Ready virtual appliance. The cloud benefits include large scale deployment and ease of use while a premise solution allows more local policy control and easier management.

According to IDC, over 60 percent of organizations feel that the hybrid approach is most successful in stopping inbound email threats and they're right: Trend Micro InterScan Messaging Security is configured for optimal spam filtering, stops threats in the cloud before they reach the network and reduces up to 90 percent of email traffic, saving bandwidth, processing power and IT staff time.

SaaS Service Provider Platform: Scalability, Availability and Flexibility

In this model, Trend Micro provides the high-performance security platform needed by Internet Service Providers and Managed Service Providers in order for them to offer flexible, integrated services to their customers. They need flexible interfaces and licensing capabilities that allow them to rapidly integrate Trend Micro solutions into other applications, whether for small or global service deployment.

Currently, this platform has two implementations – one for business to consumer, and another for business to business. Trend Micro offers the following for Service Providers that allow for easy deployment and fast delivery of security capabilities:

Consumer Endpoint Security for Service Providers is a complete endpoint security solution that ISPs can offer their customers for protection against online threats that lead to infected PCs and identity theft. This platform offers the latest anti-malware and Web threat protection technologies powered by the Trend Micro Smart Protection Network infrastructure.

Email Security Platform for Service Providers enables them to offer their customers email protection from inbound and outbound email security risks with anti-spam, antivirus, data leak prevention and encryption technologies from Trend Micro. This platform can scale from 50,000 to 50 million seats in a centralized or distributed model. Additional options such as Web security services and virtual machine deployments are also available.

SaaS alliances: Expanding ecosystem to advance platform capabilities

Another facet within Trend Micro's overall SaaS strategy is forming strategic reselling relationships with other companies that offer solutions which complement Trend Micro's security portfolio. Trend Micro's most recent alliance with Qualys will give enterprises that are trying to meet both security and compliance needs more comprehensive IT security compliance capabilities, including: vulnerability and threat management; compensating controls and assessment; and reporting and submission to meet GRC (Governance, Risk and Compliance) requirements. Later this year, a hybrid SaaS solution is expected to be available that will integrate vulnerability and threat information into a single portal. Organizations will have total visibility into their security posture, for assets outside and inside the firewall, thus automating risk management processes.

SaaS Security Powered by the Trend Micro™ Smart Protection Network Infrastructure

The Trend Micro Smart Protection Network infrastructure is fundamental to the company's SaaS solutions. Trend Micro scans, filters and correlates more than 20 billion emails, Web sites and files every single day, and then leverages that data to rapidly identify and respond to emerging threats, and improve the existing response to known threats. The engine processing all this traffic across millions of customers, multiple products, and hosted and on-premise environments is the Smart Protection Network infrastructure.

As Trend Micro extends its SaaS portfolio, customers will benefit in real-time -- rather than having to wait for the next update -- as the Trend Micro Smart Protection Network engine improves its security response.

About Trend Micro:

Trend Micro Incorporated, a global leader in Internet content security, focuses on securing the exchange of digital information for businesses and consumers. A pioneer and industry vanguard, Trend Micro is advancing integrated threat management technology to protect operational continuity, personal information, and property from malware, spam, data leaks and the newest Web threats. Visit TrendWatch at www.trendmicro.com/go/trendwatch to learn more about the latest threats. Trend Micro's flexible solutions, available in multiple form factors, are supported 24/7 by threat intelligence experts around the globe. Many of these solutions are powered by the Trend Micro™ Smart Protection Network™ infrastructure, a next-generation cloud-client innovation that combines sophisticated cloud-based reputation technology, feedback loops, and the expertise of TrendLabs(SM) researchers to deliver real-time protection from emerging threats. A transnational company, with headquarters in Tokyo, Trend Micro's trusted security solutions are sold through its business partners worldwide. Please visit www.trendmicro.com.

SOURCE Trend Micro Incorporated