Security Focus To Drive Big Growth At SCS

Strategic Computer Solutions (No. 248 on the 2006 VARBusiness 500), best known for its IBM-focused storage and networking business, is broadening its technology offerings to generate incremental growth. The company launched its security network practice more than a year ago and has successfully grown that portion of the business to more than $2 million. With a renewed focus and a dedicated team, those numbers will soon be multiplying rapidly, according to Dave Reitano, senior IT solutions architect at Syracuse, N.Y.-based SCS.

In fact, he hopes to see that business grow to more than $30 million by 2009. Lofty goals, but SCS is working closely with Cisco as its partner to position itself as a specialized security solution provider.

"We don't want to be another router-and-switch vendor," Reitano says. "We want to be narrow and deep in the security arena." He adds that wireless and VoIP are also key focuses moving forward for SCS.

To accomplish this, SCS is hiring a team focused on these security solutions under a Chief Security Officer.

"These will be dedicated people, similar to our software organization. We will hire dedicated security network reps across our geographies, and they will work with our pre- and postsales resources as well," Reitano says.

"This will be complementary to our IBM portfolio as our customers are typically big Cisco customers, and we are also a big Cisco Storage Area Network provider," he adds. "The two come together, and we will be uniquely positioned as a Cisco partner to also handle the data-center side, the Wide Area Network and disaster-recovery solutions."

By providing "security assessment" services, Reitano says he hopes to get into existing and new accounts and then follow up with recommendations and, ultimately, sales on solutions and services around compliance and intrusion-detection studies and penetration testing.

The growth Reitano foresees will come from leveraging internal marketing efforts as well as ramped-up demand-generation campaigns and internal boot camps to train reps on the products and to identify the opportunities in the market. The initial geographic focus will center on Upstate New York, New England and the Metro New York areas.