Ajay Singh Chauhan, the CEO of Spectrum Group, which includes companies such as Spectrum, Comguard, and Psilog, speaks to Channel Post about Comguard’s continued efforts and support for its channel community
Does Comguard often participate in events such as GITEX? What do you plan to achieve from your participation?
We are Comguard do participate at events such as GITEX year on year. We do this to make sure that our channel partners are able to meet with us at one central place to discuss key issues they might have on mind.
At these events, we are able to meet with lots of vendors, too, to discuss new products, solutions and opportunities in the Middle East region. Through our participation at events such as GITEX, we make sure our channel partners and vendors understand our different propositions such as value-add, channel engagement, vendor partnerships and so on.
How has the regional security market shaped up in recent years?
The security market in the Middle East region is definitely growing. The number of threats have increased, and due to the widespread publication of such threats in local media, people are aware that such threats are real. This in turn helps them in making additional allocation of budgets for newer and better security solutions.
Comguard has cemented partnerships with world’s leading network and security product vendors and technology suppliers to address such demand. Our vendor basket includes Arcsight, Acunetix, Array Networks, BlueCat Networks, Cyberoam, EC Council, Kaspersky Labs, Guidance Software, iolo technologies, infowatch, Nordic Edge, Secerno, Seclore, UM Labs, WatchGuard, Webspy and so on.
Do you believe companies in this region are aware of security threats due to acceptance of cloud solutions and BYOD?
Most companies are still not aware that security threats also exist in adoption of technologies and concepts such as BYOD and cloud solutions. While public cloud solutions providers are offering security at some level, they are not covering the entire spectrum of levels from top to bottom.
Many companies want to ensure that their data is under their control, before they can move to cloud solutions. However, as long as these companies do not have proper security solutions at their premises, security threats will tend to exist.
Over the next few years or so, we will see technologies such as cloud and virtualisation evolving to a new stage and this in turn will change the way we look at security threats.
In addition, many small and medium enterprises (SMEs) are now moving to cloud in order to reduce spend on IT infrastructure and maintaining it. For such SMEs we have security solutions from GFI, which completely focuses on small and medium enterprises.
Currently the security threats are not even known before the breakout happens. CXOs need to have knowledge about these threats and some education on how these threats can be kept at bay. Some of the CXOs are not even aware of threats or perceive such happenings as security threats.
Does Comguard currently run any engagements for its channel partners?
Channel partners are our top priority and hence we are currently running a channel partner programme called “Passport Programme”. This programme allows our channel partners to attend 3-4 dedicated presentations which will benefit them by providing more information on new solutions and services and how that can benefit their customers. This in turn can be transformed into real business for them and for us.
For channel partners we also come out with bundled offers wherein we bundle two or more products and services we offer into an attractive package. We also run education clinics every week where reseller partners can register and get more education about the latest technology trends in the region. We run this at various locations since we have classrooms in Dubai, Riyadh, and so on.
