Ingram Micro To Distribute McAfee Antivirus Services

Under the agreement, Ingram Micro will host the McAfee ASaP Web-based services in its security operations center and offer them to its solution providers.

"Part of our channel strategy was to build on distribution as a key foundation piece in building the channel. . . . Distribution players such as Ingram Micro provide McAfee the ability to scale to thousands of resellers," said Mike Menegay, vice president of McAfee channels and alliances.

Earlier this year, McAfee inked a deal with Merisel to distribute its managed security services.

Meanwhile, Andy Magsarili, director of software product development at Ingram Micro, said managed security is an emerging market for the distributor.

"We're excited about this new type of product delivery for security products. We think it's a good fit for the product category," he said.

Antivirus software requires quick, continuous updates to protect networks against the latest threats, and McAfee ASaP provides that, he said.

Jeffrey Egol, president of New York-based SavantNet, which sells McAfee software, said his firm might be interested in partnering with Ingram Micro on the service but needs more details, such as pricing.

Some clients are interested in outsourcing the management of their security systems, Egol said. "If the pricing is cost-effective, I'm sure some of them would like to unburden themselves of that," he said.

An Ingram Micro spokeswoman said the cost of the subscription-based service varies, depending on customer needs.

Steven Palange, president and CEO of TLIC Worldwide, Boston, said TLIC partners with McAfee to offer its ASaP service but welcomes the option of working with Ingram Micro because of its strong support infrastructure for VARs.

"The managed service market has huge potential," he said. "It's the perfect complement to my model and [those of a lot of security providers."

In related news, Ingram Micro Monday also plans to launch a managed peer-to-peer secure networking service with Los Angeles-based OnSystems, the spokeswoman said.