Network security vendor Trend Micro's latest solution, e-mail security for SMBs, is hosted and offers managed options, partly to create touch points and opportunities for partners as the vendor marches toward a 100 percent channel strategy.

Trend Micro Email Security Services provides content filtering, anti-spam, anti-virus, threat blocking and policy management as a hosted application. The product is designed to be cheaper and easier to embed in small to midsize business environments, and management options open doors for partners, Trend Micro executives said.

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Trend Micro developed the product with the profitability of its partners in mind, said John Maddison, senior business director of Trend's network security services group.

Resellers will be able to set policies and manage a client's network through a Web console, providing a security service capability for SMBs who lack IT staffs, Maddison said.

It allows VARs to customize the three versions of Email Security Service to "accept the global policy or tag spam but not delete it or quarantine all messages," he said.

"This is built with more touch points for the reseller to create value," Maddison said.

"In the past, resellers felt that once they sold the service, that was it until renewal time. It was sell and revisit a year later. This product is designed with touch points between partner and customer and plenty of room to add value."

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The vendor is trying to make resellers more profitable, especially in the SMB space, where the company expects to be nearly 100 percent indirect to reach more customers, Maddison said.

The product, designed for 50 to 250 users (but up to 2,500) is available in three service levels—Anti-Spam, Basic Security and Extended Security Service—priced between $795 and $2,280 per year.