Tag Archives: AVG CloudCare

AVG

New Distributors Join AVG Channel, Extend SMB Footprint in Europe

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 The spotlight is on Europe this week as we welcome new distribution partners to our AVG channel  . . . Sigma Software Distribution in the UK and Dexceo in Denmark.

As our GM Fred Gerritse has shared this year, our distribution go-to-market model has been top of mind for us this year and key to driving value for our partners.

Building a strong distributor network lets us better respond to the security needs of business customers as our AVG channel grows and scales globally. Central to this is finding distribution partners that share our security commitment and bring the expertise and capabilities to sell our full line of AVG Business solutions.

This week, we are announcing the addition of two new European value-added distributors to our AVG channel: Sigma Software Distribution in the UK and Dexceo in the Nordics. Both distributors will provide our full line of AVG Business solutions.

Sigma, who was named CRN UK’s Specialist Distributor of the Year, is a great example of a partner that aligns to our vision with the track record to show they mean business.

Sigma General Manager Jane Silk shared her thoughts on the new Sigma-AVG relationship, “We always strive to truly understand our partners’ needs and establish long term relationships that drive opportunities. The AVG relationship is one where we can work transparently, develop the best model for the channel and then prove this in the marketplace.

“AVG’s proven security expertise and its advanced technology will help us immediately respond to challenges our partners face in the current threat landscape. Product innovations such as AVG Managed Workplace that offer a centralized, automated platform to manage security while also helping our partners provide more services to their customers, have us very excited.”

Sigma has demonstrated consistent and sustainable growth in its specialty field. As proof, the company has delivered seven consecutive years of revenue and profit increases. Sigma’s operating model includes a dedicated sales development team with the knowledge base to work closely with re-sellers to support training, identify cross-sell opportunities, manage deal registration and more.

Our UK team is at the Insight Technology Show in Manchester today and will be sharing more about the Sigma-AVG relationship.

Dexceo, a leading Scandinavian security distributor and our first AVG Business solutions distributor in Denmark, is also ready to start marketing AVG Business solutions. The Dexceo team shared its AVG news this week with Danish media.

Dexceo specializes in IT security and network solutions for an international business client base and carefully selects its IT suppliers and re-sellers to maintain the company’s high quality and service standards. Dexceo is a relatively young company but we are impressed by the team’s experience, knowledge base and growing partner network. The company has also acknowledged a need to complement its security portfolio with cloud security and remote monitoring and management solutions. Both AVG Managed Workplace and AVG CloudCare will support Dexceo’s needs to deliver increased visibility across IT environments and efficiency in deploying and maintaining security services.

Dennis Wøldike, founder of Dexceo, shared his view of the AVG opportunity for Danish businesses, “We are looking forward to building our relationship with AVG and extending new benefits and opportunities to our partner network. As an AVG trusted partner, we can offer new security innovation and a range of solutions and services for the Scandinavian market.”

The additions of Dexceo and Sigma are a natural extension of our partner-focused model and complement our specialty focus, as well as our existing and valued broad line distributors.

We look forward to building strong relationships and sharing big results.

AVG

D&H Distributing Joins AVG Partner Ecosystem

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Our AVG Business team is at CompTIA’s ChannelCon event this week, talking with our partners and distributors. We are also excited to welcome D&H Distributing to our AVG channel ecosystem.

 

This week, our AVG Business team is at CompTIA’s ChannelCon event in Hollywood, Florida. This is a great kick off to the second half of 2016 and gives us a chance to meet with our partners and distributors, showcase our AVG Business solutions and talk with channel media.  We are also excited to welcome D&H Distributing to our AVG channel ecosystem.

D&H shares similar values – a partner-focused approach and commitment to driving an effective distribution strategy to deliver new value.  As a leading North American technology distributor, D&H provides a broad range of resources to empower resellers. Known for its multimarket expertise, account-dedicated sales teams, service and flexible financing, the company offers multiple advantages we can extend to our partners and their end customers. Additional advantages of the new relationship include a focus on SMB needs, partner accountability and management, ease-of-doing business, value, performance and premier service.

D&H will provide our full AVG Business product portfolio to its large network of VARs and MSPs throughout the United States and Canada.  This includes our AVG Managed Workplace, AVG CloudCare, AVG Internet Security and AVG AntiVirus Business Edition solutions.

As Jeff Davis, senior vice president of sales at D&H, shared, “We share many synergies with AVG and are excited about the momentum the company is driving through new initiatives focused on channel value. We are commited to providing a robust security offering, and the AVG Business product line offers us tremendous opportunity to execute on this vision for our VAR and MSP community. Products like AVG Managed Workplace and AVG CloudCare are designed and priced with the SMB in mind and offer advanced securiy detection and protection. This is technology innovation and simplicity we can provide across our established footprint as well as help the channel respond to new changes and threats in the security landscape.“

D&H will provide strong value as we continue to strengthen our AVG Business distribution channels to increase flexibility, drive revenue opportunities and help partners take their business to the next level.

Earlier this year, we put several AVG initatives in place focused on driving value for our channel ecosystem – including a new Sales and Marketing model to provide dedicated account support, a Partner Certification Program to deliver on-demand technical training, and a new distribution model to effectively support our partner distribution network. D&H joins several new distributor partners this year as part of this new strategy.

Also key to our distributor model is providing access to specialized, geo-specific distributors to help partners take their business to the next level. To support this localized and specialized approach, we have already onboarded several new distribution partners in the UK, Ireland, the DACH region and North America.  We will continue to work with our large top-tier distributors to complement our model. Our AVG Sales team will remain engaged with our growing partner base while also developing new accounts and relationships within our distribution partner network.

We look forward to sharing more updates.  If you’re attending ChannelCon this year, please stop by the AVG Business booth (#719) – you may even win an iPad Mini 4.  Thank you for your continued support.

AVG

Phishing is on the rise: Are you protected?

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Phishing is on the rise as hackers are finding easier and less expensive ways to launch attacks.  Every solution in our AVG Business product portfolio detects and protects against phishing.

Phishing is a security hack to trick you into providing usernames and passwords to your accounts. Usually sent as a legitimate-looking email from a company you may use or buy services from, a phishing hack will ask you to login to your account to verify some information.

The email may communicate that your account has been, or will be, closed down unless you act promptly.  The email is actually not from a legitimate or trustworthy company. With one click, you’ll be directed to a fake website and any login or user information will be sent to the hacker.

The good news is every solution in our AVG Business product portfolio detects and protects against phishing. Educating your business clients is the next step in a good defense.

AVG Business portfolio detects and protects

Our LinkScanner® is a security feature in every AVG Business product, including AVG AntiVirus and Internet Security Business Editions, AVG CloudCare and AVG Managed Workplace.  To protect against phishing, the feature checks web pages in real-time before they open in browsers, displaying immediate alerts to help eliminate click throughs to compromised web pages.

The advanced technology powering this feature takes a multi-layer approach to identify and stop “phishy” emails:

  • First, we scan the web continuously to identify “phishy” emails and websites linking to these.
  • Next, we analyze those websites and also compare them with legitimate sites. In this process, we identify unique characteristics in the way web pages are coded to identify if it is a phishing site – similar to taking a “fingerprint” of the phishing website.
  • Then those “fingerprints” are automatically added to your AVG software’s virus database so it can identify this phishing site and other sites that may use the same or similar code.
  • AVG monitors any web links that you click and stops phishing pages from loading and displays a message alerting you to the danger.

 

Please share this education about phishing with your business clients and continue to put advanced detection and protection in place with AVG Business solutions.

 

AVG

AVG Business Wins Security Vendor of the Year Award

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At AVG, we believe our partners are truly an extension of our ever-growing team. Developing strong relationships with our partners is what keeps us on course to drive mutual growth.

AVG partner Gordon Montgomery, operations director at MCC Computers Ltd., recently shared some excellent feedback. Through the partnership with AVG, MCC has added new services, increased revenue and put new customer retentions strategies in place.

We were impressed by MCC’s results and we submitted these updates to award organizers at the European IT and Software Excellence Awards.  AVG Business was selected as one of 86 finalists from an entry field of more than 400 companies in 31 countries. During the award ceremony on April 14, AVG Business was chosen as Security Vendor of the Year.

We now have another strong accolade that our AVG partners can share with their customers and prospects.

MCC is a perfect example of how partnership accelerates business. We’ve worked with MCC for several years. Using AVG CloudCare, the antivirus side of MCC’s business grew 96% year over year, and anti-spam 29%. Cloud backup, initially a very small part of its business, grew 156% in the first year.

MCC can deploy a range of cloud security solutions for multiple clients from AVG CloudCare’s cloud-based administration platform. AVG CloudCare’s central dashboard and built-in remote access are also key to MCC’s support capabilities.

Gordon shared, “We are revelling in the time AVG CloudCare is saving us. We’ve also reduced our onsite visits, allowing us to focus on productive client service and business growth.”

Gordon also put AVG CloudCare to the test with MCC’s renewal and retention efforts. Through AVG CloudCare’s platform, the MCC team can monitor customers’ systems and identify when renewals or service is needed. After the first year, MCC saw a 97% renewal rate and are now continuing this program each year.

As Gordon sums it up, “Our partnership with AVG Business and products like AVG CloudCare have given us the management control we need to effectively protect our customers and at the same time, build our own business make our customers successful.”

Thank you to MCC and all our partners for their continued support and our joint success.

Please share this award win with your clients.  Thank you!

 

AVG

The need for managed services will continue to grow in 2016 — AVG Business is here to support you

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Industry research is already indicating the growth of managed services in 2016 as the channel continues to recognize its potential for SMB clients.  According to one recent study from market research organization Techaisle, as much as 71% of U.S. SMB channel partners surveyed are currently offering one or more managed services solutions and another 18% are planning to offer the services within the year.

Here at AVG Business, that’s no surprise. More of our partners are moving toward a proactive approach and transitioning to managed service models, moving away from reactive strategies that are difficult to manage and maintain for their SMB clients.

Yet, successful implementation is key to unlocking the power of managed services. Simplifying the experience for both the partner and SMB customer is critical.  Depending on the technology in place or the type of service contract, there could be multiple steps required before both the channel partner and SMB can realize the benefits of a centrally planned and automated security defense.

The benefits of this type of defense reach far and wide.  A centrally planned solution enables AVG channel partners to efficiently deliver their unique service offerings within one standardized service delivery platform. This puts automated, service standardization in place to enable a scalable offering to better address the security needs of their SMB customers.

At AVG Business, we’re committed to helping our partners effectively unlock the power of all AVG security solutions in their marketing, selling, and implementation of managed services so they too can see the magic behind this proactive, planned and automated approach.

Here are just a few of the AVG partners experiencing great results:

  • Dave Barnard, owner of DB Computer Services came to AVG Business because he’d been told by a friendly competitor that our AVG Managed Workplace solution had “every tool a MSP needs” – something we were happy to prove. According to Dave, DB Computer Services is now able to “offer an outsourced IT support solution that is complete, simple to understand, predictable, affordable and scales with the growth of our clients’ businesses.” 
  • For Darren Nichol, the Technical Director of pckwikfix, the move to managed services was about “standing out in the crowd by continuing to truly care and put our customers before sales targets.” The proof of this came just a few weeks after purchasing AVG Managed Workplace – the team was able to convert more than 50 clients to the streamlined monthly subscription model. With routine jobs now automated, fully integrated systems and access to unprecedented detail, Nichol says the team is “starting to get a feel for the freedom we now have to be more hands on with customers’ more interesting challenges.”
  • Meanwhile Chris Carter, technical infrastructure consultant at APH, was so convinced by AVG Managed Workplace’s new premium remote control feature, plus the quality of our technical and sales support, that it migrated its entire base of managed service clients from a standard antivirus product to the full-service AVG Business platform.

We have done a lot of work toward addressing the business needs of AVG partners, including within our AVG Managed Workplace technology platform, as well as best practices on how to fulfill service contracts in the most efficient and profitable way.

We are listening and responding – and we will have more updates and news to share this year.

Until then, please continue to share your feedback in 2016!

AVG

AVG Named One of 2016’s Coolest Cloud Security Vendors

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It has been a cold month for all the right reasons this January as AVG has just been named one of CRN’s Coolest Cloud Security Vendors for 2016. This is the second consecutive time AVG has made the list, and it’s validation of our hard work over the last twelve months. We’ve been busy and – more importantly – focused on providing even more value for our AVG Business partners and their SMB clients in 2016.

In CRN’s recent recognition, the IT channel publication noted our cloud security and remote monitoring and management (RMM) capabilities for businesses. We continue to see AVG partners transition to solutions such as AVG CloudCare and AVG Managed Workplace as security becomes a higher priority for small business owners and their IT staff.  When you couple this with our advanced Business Edition security products, it’s easy to see the value in our AVG Business solutions.

Earning the recognition as a ‘cool cloud security vendor’ also reflects our commitment to ensuring cloud solutions like AVG CloudCare are easy to implement and manage, simplifying the experience for partners and their SMB end-users.

AVG CloudCare is a single cloud platform that enables the real-time management of a full suite of cloud-based security services including antivirus, online backup (OLB), and a number of other key features.

If you’re not sufficiently impressed by our ‘cool’ credentials already, here are a few more top reasons why you should consider investigating AVG CloudCare for yourself:

  • Ease of Use – AVG CloudCare’s online dashboard is well designed and easy to use for managing desktops, laptops and servers all at a glance.
  • Remote Deployment – As long as one device is on the network, AVG CloudCare can be deployed to any computer attached to the network from the web console.
  • Remote Updates and Scans – AVG CloudCare administrators can force definition updates and scans remotely.
  • Dashboards and Reporting – AVG CloudCare administrators can view all managed devices through an online dashboard showing their status.
  • Content Filtering – As an add-on, content filtering can protect your client’s business from malicious websites and increase productivity by disallowing certain groups of sites.

This recognition is also a true testament of the continued support from our partner and SMB community. As we head into 2016, we remain committed to helping solve today’s business security challenges and helping businesses be productive and successful.

Thank you for your support!

AVG

Making the case for channel-delivered cybersecurity

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For our AVG partners and distributors these findings may not come as a surprise, but it presents another opportunity for the channel to help fill these security gaps with value-added solutions, best practices and excellent customer service.

According to the topline results of the survey, 36% of global organizations lack confidence in their ability to detect sophisticated cyber attacks. Linked to this, 36% don’t have a threat intelligence program, and 18% don’t have identity and access management programs – little wonder then that 69% thought that their IT security budgets should be increased by half.

Protection from cyber attack should be a priority for all businesses and as the EY data has shown, many organizations could benefit from the guidance of the channel. AVG partners, including A+ Computers and Services, DB Computer Solutions, MCC Computers Ltd., SortMyPC and many more, are already addressing the gaps using AVG Business products.

Channelnomics editor Jessica Meek also highlighted findings from the EY survey in her recent article, again, emphasizing the opportunity for the channel to help IT professionals prioritize security, provide solutions and services, and also act as trusted advisors on industry developments.

A few key stats to note:

  • 88% of respondents did not believe their information security infrastructure fully meets their organization’s needs
  • 57% said that the information security function suffers from a lack of available talent
  • 47% said they don’t have a security operation center
  • 54% said they lacked a dedicated function to focus on the impact of emerging technologies

AVG Business products like AVG Managed Workplace and AVG CloudCare are great examples of how our partners are using end-to-end solutions to help resolve security issues, staffing and infrastructure challenge for their clients.

AVG CloudCare offers a modern approach to security with streamlined access to advanced features through one centralized pane of glass. Ease of deployment, through one click installation and activation, helps our partners become more agile. The product can be used for managing services, proactive monitoring, content filtering, cloud backup, daily reporting, providing secure sign-on and more, essentially helping our partners act as outsourced IT departments for their clients.

AVG Managed Workplace also offers powerful automation to help partners proactively manage and monitor clients’ networks.  Deployment and update of security tools are easily handled by automation helping to ensure a strong security posture at all times. With premium remote control integrated at no additional cost to the remote monitoring and management platform, partners gain cost savings as well as reporting tools to streamline billing and prove client ROI.

These flexible and powerful AVG solutions empower businesses to address security issues and run more effectively and efficiently. That’s powerful reassurance to give your clients.

AVG

A simple solution to IT security sprawl?

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According to recent research conducted by Forrester Consulting, the vast majority of enterprise security professionals believe that security should be delivered as an integrated platform via the cloud.

Indeed, 98 percent of those questioned said that integrated security platforms would be effective to both improve their security posture and to reduce overall cost in comparison to traditional on-premise security appliances and point solutions.

As our channel partners have experienced firsthand from their small and medium business clients, the ultimate problem addressed in the research is one that has been gaining increased airtime over the past year – security sprawl. With more data sharing, more device connections, and more security solutions to manage everything than ever before, companies are struggling to keep themselves secure.

Though targeted at an enterprise level, I believe you’ll agree that these research findings are just as applicable to smaller businesses – with the fragmented security landscape posing a management headache no matter your company size.

Our AVG Business product line includes a managed services and security platform that offers a range of features. We have designed the products with absolute simplicity in mind to help relieve security sprawl headaches. AVG CloudCare is one example, enabling direct, real-time management of a full suite of cloud-delivered security services – antivirus, online backup, content filtering, email security, premium remote control, secure sign-on and more, all from one dashboard. Instead of having to deal with the complexity of multiple, different security solutions, we provide a ‘single pane of glass’ view for easier IT management.

AVG CloudCare supports our partners, so that MSPs can give their customers the reassurance that their applications and data are protected on any device, anytime, anywhere.

As John Quatto, Channel Partner Manager at Zobrio Inc. recently put it, “the only problem you might face now is that your clients will never witness and appreciate the work you’re doing – As an MSP you have to be able to prove your worth – ironically, that’s difficult if you’re fixing issues before the customer even knows they exist!”

If AVG CloudCare sounds like it could be an asset for your business, visit our AVG Business website today to find out more.

AVG

The channel opportunity to reduce security complexity

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According to PwC’s latest Information Security Breaches Survey a staggering 74 per cent of small businesses have suffered a security breach in the last year—jumping significantly from the 60 per cent recorded in 2014.

Aside from the monetary losses suffered, the damage to reputation can be incalculable. The topic of data security is higher on the media’s agenda than ever before and the resulting bad press from any security breach today can severely impact a business’s reputation and credibility.

It’s clear that SMBs need to take immediate action, but what’s holding them back? The answer is not just money but time. Discussing small business vulnerability in a recent article in the UK newspaper The Times, journalist Mark Frary called out one of the underlying problems as follows:

“One of the barriers to implementing cyber security is the amount of management attention it takes. SMEs are naturally focused on profit and loss and cyber security can seem less relevant than other challenges.” 

Time management issues shouldn’t be the reason for neglecting security. That’s where AVG Business channel partners come in. This is an opportunity for our partners to add new value for clients, removing the complexity of multiple, different security solutions.

Solutions such as AVG CloudCare can help partners easily implement security strategies for their clients.  AVG CloudCare offers a single cloud platform that enables the real-time management of a full suite of cloud-based security services including antivirus and online backup (OLB), among other key features.

Brookland Computer Services (BCS), an AVG Business channel partner serving clients in finance, legal, manufacturing and accounting, has found AVG CloudCare’s security products fit well in the ICT provider’s business model. BCS Managing Director Eamonn Fogarty explains, “With the old method of purchasing antivirus, you just hope It worked because no one could check it. Businesses were potentially left unprotected. Using AVG CloudCare, we can monitor and control every device and every environment, with reduced workload for us and our clients’ internal IT people.”

Another AVG Business channel partner, Northern IT Consultancy (NITC), is using CloudCare’s security portal to manage clients’ security services from a single screen dashboard. NITC Managing Director Ritesh Mehta commented that it has improved control and flexibility, and provides a straightforward product they can resell at a competitive price, “Threats are detected and the remote management means we don’t have to go onsite to fix the problem or interrupt the client. They’re very happy with that and our client retention speaks volumes.”

If you haven’t heard about AVG CloudCare or the portfolio of security and managed IT services from AVG Business, visit our AVG Business website today.

AVG

AVG CloudCare wins VB100 antivirus award

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AVG CloudCare™ is a platform that simplifies IT management for the small and medium-sized business. It protects devices, data and people with a set of flexible services that you can manage remotely from any web browser. Activate or deactivate services, roll out policies, install software, and simply take care of issues, all in a single platform.

The importance of independent reviews on products designed for the SMB’s is that these businesses do not have the time and resource, nor the inclination in many cases, to research which solution will give them the security and reliability that their business requires.

In large enterprises teams of IT professionals evaluate multiple products and select based on criteria that their business demands. In small organisations the requirement to have a solution that answers the business needs does not change but the ability to research a market does differ.

Most SMB organizations trust their IT security to a partner, a reseller or consulting company that provides them the services and selection of products that an enterprise IT department would. The fact that the purchaser can easily validate the proposal from their IT partner by looking to see what accolades and awards the solution being offered has achieved makes the decision process much simpler.

VB100 is a comparative review conducted by Virus Bulletin, who put antivirus solutions through their paces with rigorous testing. In this case the testing was for servers running Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1.

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