Iomega To Offer Managed VeriSign SSL Service

Iomega's acquisition of managed service provider CSCI last month is already starting to pay off for the storage vendor as CSCI continues to add services to its line card.

Now the OfficeScreen division of Iomega, CSCI early this fall expects to add VeriSign SSL certificates as a service for small businesses based on SSL VPN technology running on Juniper Networks platforms.

Rich Tear, vice president of managed services for the OfficeScreen division--named after CSCI's flagship VPN service--said the new service is a first for small businesses and will be available via a number of hosted data centers.

As a rising number of small businesses get involved in such areas as health care and compliance, they are finding dual authentication important, according to Tear.

"With VeriSign, we can give users complete granular access to their company networks," he said. "Also, dual authentication gives the best security because it delivers a one-time password and eliminates problems with stolen passwords."Tear said he expects the new SSL VPN to be the first of a wide range of new services his organization will start to bring to Iomega's huge network of small-business solution providers, which might be looking for ways to bring services to their customers.

Before being acquired by Iomega, CSCI was already bringing VPN, firewall and antivirus technology as a service to its small-business customer base. But as a part of Iomega, those services will now reach more of VARs' small-business clients, Tear said.

"As I look at this business, I could see that there was more interest in channel partners like [Bedford, Texas-based hosted data center] C I Host or vendor partners in working with a larger company," he said. "It has been my vision to be a worldwide leader in managed services. The merger with Iomega probably gives us an international forum to do this."

One of the next managed services Iomega can bring to small-business VARs is managed storage, Tear added. Though there are several companies that do a good job providing small companies with managed storage through indirect channels, Iomega can do the same while offering other services, thanks to its CSCI acquisition, he said.

"Ultimately, one day, we will need to be able to go to a customer and ask, 'Would you like antivirus? Antispam? Remote access? How about storage? Do you need remote backups? How about monitoring? There are a lot of things overstressed IT departments need," Tear said. "It is valuable to present our offerings through a large company that can take to the market globally."0