Websense Aims to Unify Endpoint Security

Websense released TRITON APX 8.0, an integrated security platform that the company said will make it simpler for its partners to sell a broader range of its products and services.

In addition, Websense announced that John Starr has been appointed vice president of global sales channels and professional services.

TRITON API 8.0 will be critical for Websense partners because, rather than bundling Web, email and mobile security products along with data protection software, the platform represents the first time all those products are truly integrated within one platform, Starr said.

“This isn’t a product bundle,” he said. “It’s an opportunity for our partners to add real value.”

A recent survey commissioned by Websense found that, if given the chance, 30 percent of security professionals would completely revamp the security products they have in place.

The issue, Starr said, is that end customers are looking for a lot more integration across endpoint security in order to more rapidly identify and contain threats. The challenge is that providing that capability requires more security expertise, he added.

To help channel partners provide that expertise, Websense created a professional services group that channel partners can call on as an alternative to hiring their own security experts, he said, adding that because there’s a shortage of people with IT security expertise, the market opportunity for channel partners often winds up being more limited than it should be.

IT organizations are currently experiencing massive amounts of security fatigue. While the number of threats has clearly increased, so too has the number of false positives. As a result, IT organizations become numb to all the alerts being generated by endpoint security products that are not tightly integrated.

The goal is to reduce that fatigue by delivering an integrated endpoint security platform that not only reduces those false positives, but also provides a mechanism for delivering security services to customers at a time when security expertise is very much in short supply, Starr said.

Michael Vizard has been covering IT issues in the enterprise for 25 years as an editor and columnist for publications such as InfoWorld, eWEEK, Baseline, CRN, ComputerWorld and Digital Review.