The combination of telecomms, services and security is an obvious move in contemporary computing, and will particularly target the burgeoning mobile market and the rapid growth in mobile malware.
Lucius Lobo, VP & global head of security services at TechMahindra, explained that the company is already well-established in enterprise and infrastructure security services. “But we have realized,” he said, “that there are two important changes happening in computing. The first is a huge expansion in end-points connecting to corporate servers – from the existing one billion to something like five to eight billion over the next few years. There is a more vibrant eco-system evolving around commerce and mobile banking, and we see a large market for security on consumers’ end devices."
“Secondly,” he added, “we believe there is a large segment of typically small and medium-sized companies that have been underserved by the security industry.” A relationship between TechMahindra and Kaspersky is designed to change this “by offering a complete managed service, including 24/7 security.”
While TechMahindra is hoping that Kaspersky will help it serve companies smaller than its traditional market, Kaspersky is hoping the relationship will help it move toward the larger companies. Bernie Bengler, director of cloud services and SaaS with Kaspersky Lab, Asia-Pacific, explained that “through the relationship with Mahindra Satyam and TechMahindra, Kaspersky will be able to address the larger corporate segments. This is not limited to the telco sector where TechMahindra has a very big footprint already. The most beneficial part will be the combination of Mahindra's service orientation bundled with Kaspersky security products. It is planned to come up with very compelling security solutions in the very near future. Those will be tailored to the needs of Mahindra and the markets they are operating in. The business opportunity for all three companies is expected to be very large.”
Detailed numbers have been discussed, he says, but will not be disclosed.
“TechMahindra and Mahindra Satyam,” he added, “both see great potential in the security arena. It is a primary focus of the relationship of all three companies to address mobile security issues in the Asia-Pacific Market and also address and provide infrastructure security for cloud service providers (especially for virtualized environments).” Another goal is to provide managed security services and hosted security solutions especially to SMBs. “All in all,” he concludes, “this relationship has crafted a strong alliance to further improve Kaspersky's leading position in a majority of Asia-Pacific markets.”
Kaspersky is the obvious partner for TechMahindra. Both have global ambitions, but are particularly strong in Asia. The Asian market can be seen as their starting point and the springboard to the rest of the world.