Kaspersky Lab Spurs Channel Partner Growth with New Endpoint Security Solutions

Kaspersky Endpoint Security 8 and Kaspersky Security for Virtualization – both managed by Kaspersky Security Center - Welcomed by Partners, Media, and Industry Analysts

Woburn, MA – May 11, 2012 – Six months after the launch of Kaspersky Endpoint Security 8 for Windows and Kaspersky Security Center administration console, the new solutions and partner enablement programs have already made their mark.  Kaspersky Lab, a leading developer of secure content and threat management solutions, introduced its new line of corporate security products in October of 2011, designed to keep businesses secure in an age of cyber-warfare.  After a few short months in market, these new security solutions have created larger sales opportunities in new vertical markets for Kaspersky Lab’s channel partners, and has Kaspersky Lab poised to win market share away from entrenched competitors.

In April 2012, Kaspersky Lab complimented its new endpoint flagship products with Kaspersky Security for Virtualization, the Company’s first virtualization security solution.  Built for seamless management within Kaspersky Security Center, Kaspersky Security for Virtualization integrates directly with VMware vCenter to provide agentless, high-performance protection across virtual data centers, servers and desktops.  With Kaspersky Security for Virtualization added to the Company’s suite of endpoint security options, Kaspersky channel partners now have a new trump card in their sales arsenal: offering customers a single, unified management platform for their virtual, physical and mobile environments.

Evolution of Channel Partner Business Opportunities
The best technology is only half of Kaspersky Lab’s recipe for success.  Since entering the North American market seven years ago, Kaspersky Lab has remained 100 percent committed to the channel, never taking a direct sale. The Kaspersky Lab channel team’s focus on investing, developing and growing existing partnerships has remained the cornerstone of its growth strategy, and this year’s results showthe benefits. Most recently, Kaspersky Lab was named a 2012 Channel Champion by CRN in the Network Security Software Category, basedon the results of surveys conducted amongst top solution providers.

Other highlights from Kaspersky Lab’s 2011 channel program include:

• More than 70 percent of all Kaspersky Lab program partners experienced double digit growth.
• Our active partners grew their businesses by an average of 29 percent.
• Partners benefited from double-digit growth in the size of deals involving Kaspersky Lab products.
• Kaspersky Lab won the 2011 XChange XCellence award in the category of Software during 2011’s XChange Public Sector event, creating new opportunities in the public sector IT channel.
• For the fourth consecutive year, our channel partners voted us onto CRN’s Annual Report Card, naming Kaspersky Lab the “Best Partnership in Client Security Software,” and after a first time entry, the winner of the “Network Security Software” category.

QUOTE
Paul Anderson, CEO
Novacoast
“Kaspersky Lab has been a phenomenal asset to our sales efforts over the past few years, and we’re genuinely excited about the opportunities we have with the new Endpoint 8 product.  We’re offering technology out-of-the-box that our competitors only sell as separate modules, and the ease-of-use factor continues to be a constant value-add for business of all sizes.”

Unmatched Combination of Features and Protection
The test results are in – Kaspersky Endpoint Security 8 for Windows offers features and value that the competition does not, while offering better security protection from malware than competing products.  This unmatched combination of performance and value gives Kaspersky Lab channel partners clear differentiators to win accounts and grow their businesses.

In October 2011, the Tolly Group, a global provider of third-party validation services, reviewed the feature-set of Kaspersky Endpoint Security 8 for Windows and compared it to other security suites.  In the Tolly Group’s report, a number of product differentiators were identified

• Kaspersky Endpoint Security 8 for Windows is the only endpoint protection product tested that provides across-the-board Web management and protection in a single product.

• Unlike other vendors’ offerings, all security policies in Kaspersky Lab’s offering can be specific to individual computers or individual users computer, and can all be scheduled. 

• For Web control, Kaspersky Lab is the only vendor to provide specific Web control policies with built-in content categories (e.g. social networks) and data type (e.g. executable file), while other vendor solutions require the use of a firewall or the purchase add-on products to achieve a similar level of functionality.

Many other respected, independent organizations have also acknowledged the effectiveness of Kaspersky Endpoint Security 8 for Windows. The authoritative AV-Testlab conducted two sets of evaluations for the latest business security suites, and in both tests, Kaspersky Lab scored the highest. 

In both tests, sevenleading corporate security solutions were assessed for their ability to withstand zero-day attacks, recognize malicious objects, and detect and delete malicious programs on already infected machines running Windows XP SP3. Other factors such as performance and false positives were also taken into consideration. 

In the most recent evaluation, Kaspersky Endpoint Security 8 for Windows earned the highest overall rating, scoring 16 points out of a possible 18. The solution from Symantec received 14.5, McAfee’s solution scored 11.5, while the Trend Micro solution only managed a score of 10.5. Detailed information on the test results for Kaspersky Endpoint Security 8 for Windows are available on the AV-Test web site:

            July-Aug. 2011:http://www.av-test.org/en/tests/test-reports/julaug-2011/
            Sept-Oct 2011: http://www.av-test.org/en/tests/test-reports/sepoct-2011/

The Global Growth of Kaspersky Lab – Building for the Future
Around the globe and across North America, Kaspersky Lab continued growing at a torrid pace. Both Gartner and IDC named Kaspersky Lab one of the fastest growing security vendors in the global security software market, and the Company is poised to become the 3^rd largest endpoint security vendor in the world.

Kaspersky Lab started 2012 with a bang by marking another “first” for the Company. In January, Kaspersky Lab was named a “Leader” in the Gartner Magic Quadrant for Endpoint Protection Platforms.* This Magic Quadrant report is based on criteria in two categories: completeness of vision and ability to execute.  The new features and security technologies with Kaspersky Endpoint Security 8 propelled the Company to this high honor by offering broad platform support, straightforward manageability, and comprehensive malware detection capabilities.

Accolades for Kaspersky Lab also continued to mount throughout 2011, highlighting several key areas of strength and growth, includingourChannel Program, key individual executives, and software development and distribution.  Perhaps the most compelling recognition ofKaspersky Lab in 2011 recognized the characteristic that is most heavily ingrained in the Company’s culture: innovation.  Kaspersky Lab was proud to be named one of the 50 Most Innovative Companies by Fast Company magazine, which noted the Company’s commitment to hiring experts with creative thinking and problem-solving abilities.

QUOTE:
Chris Christiansen, Program VP, Security Products and Services
IDC
“Kaspersky Lab’s market share gains over the last five years are noteworthy*, but until last year, it was still seen as a tertiary player by many enterprise customers.  Recent integration of virtualization, applications control, web management, and granular device control improved Kaspersky Lab's position in deals where it was previously dismissed as uncompetitive.”

About Kaspersky Lab
Kaspersky Lab is the world's largest privately-held Internet Security company, providing comprehensive protection against all forms of IT threats such as viruses, spyware, hackers and spam. The company's products provide in-depth computer defense for more than 400 million systems around the globe, including home and mobile users, small and medium sized businesses and large enterprises. Kaspersky technology is also incorporated inside the products and services of nearly 100 of industry leading IT, networking, communications and applications solution vendors. For further information about the company, please visit http://www.kaspersky.com/.

For the latest in-depth information on security threat issues and trends, please visit http://www.securelist.com/. Follow @Securelist on Twitter.  For the most up-to-date world security news, visit http://www.threatpost.com/.

*Gartner, Magic Quadrant for Endpoint Protection Platforms, Peter Firstbrook, Neil MacDonald, John Girard, January 16, 2012.

*IDC, Worldwide Endpoint Security 2011–2015 Forecast and 2010 Vendor Shares (November, 2011)