Startup Pertino: Pushing Boxes To The Cloud

Since September 2011, Cupertino, Calif.-based startup Pertino has been inventing a way to make traditional networking boxes virtual and available to small and midsize businesses around the world. Since launching its technology in 2013, the company has deployed more than 4,000 cloud networks. Now Pertino has ramped up its product line and told CRN its detailed plan to expand its channel partner program.

On Tuesday, Pertino released its new Pertino Cloud Networks Services, "designed to virtualize common appliance and endpoint functions and activate them as cloud services on-demand, based on user policy and location," according to a statement.

In addition, Pertino launched AppScape, an app store for the cloud-based network that can be downloaded with one click. Apps are geared toward security, visibility and control, allowing IT departments to maintain oversight of Pertino apps on devices no matter where in the world users and devices travel.

[Related: NextTI: Becoming A World-Class MSP Requires Planning, Process ]

id
unit-1659132512259
type
Sponsored post

Todd Krautkremer, vice president of marketing at Pertino, told CRN that by the end of the 2014 fiscal year, third-party developers will be able to create apps for AppScape.

Pertino also has created an all-in-one Android solution. The company already provided support for Windows and Mac devices. Support for iOS devices will kick in at the beginning of the 2014 calendar year, Krautkremer told CRN.

When the company began, "networking had been untouched by the cloud," Krautkremer said. Traditional networking boxes and infrastructure remained outside of the cloud as everything else in IT was moving into it.

The company has found its sweet spot in small and midsize business, servicing enterprises with between 20 and 500 employees. Pertino offers its customers, and its partners' customers, the ability to deploy a VPN in a matter of minutes, and then allow mobile workers to access files behind the customer's firewall by simply starting up a mobile device.

From a security perspective, IT administrators are able to view each user and device from a central portal. From there, IT can monitor devices running on Pertino and with a single click, remove or alter a device's access to sensitive information, applications and files.

NEXT: A Growing Channel Partner Program

In a study Pertino conducted in September among small and midsize businesses, the company found "75 percent of SMB IT professionals say the number of remote and mobile workers has grown in recent years, and that 96 percent of these workers need access to behind-the-firewall resources."

"Essentially, mobile workers live in the cloud," Krautkremer said.

"A traditional VPN with a Cisco firewall or Juniper firewall, those take at least 45 minutes to an hour to set up per machine when you deploy them. Pertino just starts up and works. It takes five to 10 minutes to deploy per machine," said IT support agent, A.J. Stringham, of Niagara Technology Group.

Liverpool, N.Y.-based solution provider Niagara Technology Group became one of Pertino's first partners to both adopt and offer Pertino products.

"Hardware solutions are so expensive—$500 to $600 per device would be a low estimate" Stringham said. "Plus there are license schemes you have to pay per user. Then, if you increase the amount of users, you have to buy more licenses."

Stringham said he recommends Pertino products to customers because of the significant cost and time savings.

In reference to a growing channel partner program, Krautkremer said Pertino is getting more inquiries from MSPs than traditional sales inquiries.

"We have a council of five executives of managed service providers and we are getting early feedback on the product. They told us they'd like to see the ability to brand our service with their own brand," Krautkremer said.

He added, Pertino will launch its MSP program with the ability to brand its services in the first quarter of 2014.

With the boost of Tuesday's announcements, Krautkremer said Pertino is prepared to add tens of thousands of devices to its network in the coming months.

After the coming kickoff of its managed service provider program, Krautkremer said at least a quarter of Pertino's business will come from partners, a number the company intends to grow.

PUBLISHED OCT. 30, 2013