22 01732 759725 Introducing Gen Digital & Avast Avast, a Gen Digital brand, is aiming to build even stronger ties with the channel community to help businesses stay safe and secure. Technology Reseller finds out more from Emily Winn, Head of Channel Sales North EMEA, and James Bevan, Channel Account Manager UK&I/Nordics Gen Digital (Gen) is an award-winning cyber safety company with 500 million users worldwide but nothing like the name recognition of its world-famous brands like Norton, Avast, LifeLock, Avira, AVG, CCleaner, ReputationDefender and, since April, MoneyLion. Gen was created in 2022, when NortonLifeLock (the product of Norton brand owner Symantec’s acquisition of LifeLock in 2017) merged with Avast, which in 2016 had bought fellow anti-virus company AVG. Hence, Gen’s enviable brand portfolio. Today, these brands offer a range of security, privacy, identity protection and financial wellness solutions to consumers and small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs). Broadly speaking, Norton focuses on consumers and business professionals/ sole traders, while Avast addresses the cybersecurity needs of SMBs. In the UK and Ireland, Avast does this via a network of around 1,000 resellers and MSPs served and supported by three distribution partners – Westcoast, Avosec and Exertis. Multi-layered security Avast is best known for its award-winning antivirus software for mobile, PC, Mac and Linux, backed by an advanced, AI-powered threat detection network. But this is just part of the story, as it also provides patch management, cloud backup, remote management and, most recently, web content filtering as part of a multi-layered approach to security. “Our new Web Control feature is category-based, not DNS-based, so it allows an MSP to lock down certain categories, e.g. pornography or gambling, and make sure end users don’t look at things they shouldn’t. It’s quite a nice feature because if the CEO wants staff to be able to access Facebook, say, during their lunch hours, it has a level of granularity which allows that,” explains Gen’s Channel Account Manager for the UK&I/Nordics, James Bevan. He points out that Avast offers its solutions individually and in costeffective bundles. “We have a bundled solution called Avast Ultimate, which contains both patch management and antivirus features for a lower combined cost, as well as a VPN, USB protection, web filtering and a ransomware shield. It’s not just an antivirus, it’s a full Endpoint Protection suite. Even though our antivirus is awardwinning and best of breed, it’s important that people layer that security with additional functionality to keep themselves safe and secure.” Avast Business Hub Four years ago, Avast strengthened its B2B proposition with the introduction of Avast Business Hub, consolidating endpoint protection, patch management, backup & recovery and remote access and support solutions into an integrated platform that makes it easier to manage and protect devices, applications, data and networks. “Avast Business Hub is a new kind of multi-tenant cloud platform that allows partners to manage and deploy the different services we offer through a single dashboard,” explains Bevan. “Obviously, we’re focused on channels, so we specifically have multi-tenanted dashboards where partners can view all their customers, but you could give access to a customer if they wanted to see that information themselves. “One of the things we get pretty good feedback on from MSPs and partners is the level of reporting it provides. They can go in there and pull certain reports or schedule reports to go out to their customers, which helps to remind the customer what it is they are paying for. For example, patch management reports will show exactly what’s been patched. And all that reporting can be automated.” Bevan describes Avast Business Hub as a straightforward alternative to remote monitoring and management platforms that allow an MSP to do almost everything under the sun, but which can be expensive and lock partners in with a commitment to spend X amount on X number of devices over X number of years. “What we’ve tried to develop is a flexible solution with no minimum commitment and no minimum device counts. While it doesn’t have all the functionality of an RMM, it does give MSPs the ability to offer their managed service on a flexible basis and makes it as easy as possible for people to migrate to one single pane of truth across their antivirus and patch management and backup and remote control, thus helping them to gain control over sprawling technology stacks that might have 20 different services from 20 different providers and 20 panes of glass.” In this context, Bevan highlights the Hub’s inclusion of a freemium remote control tool offering five 15-minute sessions per month, giving MSPs an alternative to Teamviewer or ScreenConnect, and a built-in API tool that they can use to move data from Avast into an existing PSA or RMM tool. Monthly billing with Exertis In April, Avast, in collaboration with Exertis, made its offering even more compelling by introducing a monthly billing option with no upfront fees as an alternative to prepaid licences (for one, two or three years), SPECIAL REPORT Emily Winn
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