Log Management Vendor Logs New Channel

According to Christopher Allen, vice president of channel development for the Americas at the Sunnyvale, Calif.-based vendor, the program will revolve around a core group of 30 security-focused solution providers who have passed a rigorous certification exam. Once these 30 "Premiere" partners are in place, the firm plans to drive 100 percent of all sales through the channel. "These partners will represent us to all of our customers," he said. "We are looking to [the channel] to spark all of our growth." Allen said that Premiere partners will receive volume discounts, lead generation and distribution, presales support and market development funds. Other partners, known solely as "Authorized" partners, will receive only discounts.

LogLogic is looking for roughly 30 partners in this lower tier, Allen said. The flagship LogLogic LX family of products consists of appliances that provide automated log aggregation by combining security information management and network management into one. Since the company was launched in July 2004, a handful of solution providers have signed up to sell the products and help customers looking to comply with regulations requiring audit trails and other forms of data privacy.

"To one degree or another, every [customer] has the problem of compliance," said Dominique Levin, vice president of product management and business development. "Not every [customer] knows there is a commercial solution to fix it."

One of the solution providers selling LogLogic products is Shaq Khan, CEO of Fortifire, Hayward, Calif. Since he signed up as a partner late last year, Khan said he has had great traction selling the tools to companies in the health-care and financial services industries. In those markets, customers are in need of compliance solutions and value audits almost as much as they value uptime, Khan said.

"For compliance, [LogLogic] probably is the best tool on the market," he said. "It's easy to deploy, easy to build services around and easy to prove to customers this is worth their investment."

LogLogic products vary in pricing. Most start around $100,000.