Perimeter eSecurity Pushes Into Storage Services

By James Rogers, May 16, 2008, 5:00 PM

Services specialist Perimeter eSecurity is looking to merge storage and security with the launch of its Remote Backup and Recovery (RBR) service next week, which it claims will ease users’ backup burdens.

Perimeter eSecurity has traditionally focused on managed security services such as firewalls and IDSs, although the vendor is now adding storage to this mix.

“The new service is specifically around our storage and remote backup,” says Doug Howard, Perimeter eSecurity’s CSO, explaining that his firm has built a software agent that can be installed on users’ PCs, servers, and storage arrays.

This agent works out which files need to be backed up, according to exec. “We just identify the files that have had changes made to them -- this means that backups take very little time and the bandwidth needed is low.”

The software agent also compresses the data prior to sending it to Perimeter eSecurity’s data centers. “Customers replicate to two data backup centers,” says Howard, explaining that the RBR offering will be officially launched next week.

RBR, which is available now, will be priced from $2 a month for PC backup, and between $10 to $15 a month for server and storage backup, depending on the size of the system.

At least one analyst feels that this remote backup message will catch on, particularly at a time when users are looking to reduce the number of vendors they deal with.

“Now that the idea of managed services is catching on, and customers are getting far more comfortable with the idea of them, they don’t want to go to a series of vendors,” says Jeff Kaplan, managing director at Think Strategies. “The biggest benefit of [RBR] is the inter-twining of security and storage.”

Despite this plus, Perimeter eSecurity faces stiff competition in the remote backup space from the likes of Carbonite and EMC with its MozyPro offering.

The business version of MozyPro is priced at $3.95 per month, plus an additional 50 cents per Gbyte per month for desktop backup. A MozyPro license for a Windows server costs $6.95, plus an additional $1.75 per Gbyte per month.

Think Strategies’ Kaplan warns that Perimeter eSecurity may struggle to lure customers away from EMC, explaining that users perceive the two vendors as very different types of company.

“Even though they are shifting to services, EMC is a technology vendor, and some companies will be more comfortable working with a technology company,” he says. “Some customers are going to be more comfortable working with a services company like eSecurity.”

In this vein, Perimeter eSecurity faces a challenge convincing users that its storage credentials are valid, according to Kaplan. ”It’s about establishing credibility beyond security; at some point they may need to drop the second name and stick with ‘Perimeter.' "

Perimeter’s Howard admits that, even with a current customer list of 4,500 firms, there is still plenty of work to be done around brand awareness.

“I would readily acknowledge that we’re the largest managed security services provider in this space, particularly as a private company, that nobody has heard of,” he quips, adding that the company is working to change this.

Last year Perimeter eSecurity picked up $104 million in funding, he explained, partly to finance its acquisition of messaging specialist USA.NET, and partly to boost its profile.

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