nCircle Launches Partner Program For Cloud-Based Product

The reseller program for the security and compliance auditing service, called PureCloud, is targeted at companies selling to SMBs, which nCircle defines as companies with 255 devices or less on a network. No installation of hardware or software is required to use PureCloud.

Ed Colonna, vice president of business development for nCircle's software-as-a-service products, said Thursday the reseller program will have three tiers. The first is a referral program for anyone who wants to drop a link to the PureCloud web page on a blog, Facebook page or web site. nCircle will pay a one-time referral fee of 10 percent of whatever is purchased.

The second tier is for security hardware and software resellers. nCircle is willing to provide a margin as high as 30 percent, which applies whether the reseller's customers buys only a single scan or annual subscription, in which case the reseller would have recurring revenue. Certification and minimum sales are not required, Colonna said.

The last tier is targeted at managed security service providers. nCircle is willing to up the margin to as much as 50 percent to MSSPs that sell the service as part of their product portfolio. MSSPs pay a one-time fee of roughly $20,000 and can sell the service under their own brand.

When bought from nCircle, PureCloud costs $7 per IP address for a one-time scan. The price includes reporting on vulnerabilities and how they can be fixed. Annual subscriptions with unlimited scanning and reporting cost $49 per IP address. Colonna claims nCircle, which launched PureCloud in November 2011, charges as much as 55 percent less than competitors.

The 120-employee nCircle says it has 5,500 customers globally, many within financial services, health care, retail, and government. The privately held company does not release revenue. Its major backers include Menlow Ventures, VV Capital and Alta Partners, Colonna says. Colonna joined the San Francisco-based company in early November from Precise Software, where he was responsible for marketing and business development. Precise develops and sells technology for managing application performance.