StillSecure Unveils Cobia Partner Program, Support/Purchase Programs
IT News Online Staff
2007-05-23
StillSecure, a provider of enterprise network security solutions, has announced the StillSecure Cobia Partner Program. The company has also announced a three-tiered Cobia support program and an online appliance purchasing program for the community source product.
The company said VARs, independent software vendors (ISVs) and hardware manufacturers can leverage the Cobia open, modular platform to capitalize on new revenue opportunities that include reselling Cobia software, appliances and services, embedding Cobia within hardware and building products that can be distributed on the Cobia Unified Network Platform.
Cobia is a community source project that is shifting the value equation from fixed-appliance manufacturers to a broader, partner-based ecosystem. Current partners include Cymphonix Corp., Portwell Inc., ArcMentor, DirSec and Haven Computing.
"Cobia changes the playing field in the network infrastructure industry. As an open, modular, community source platform, it offers a virtually unlimited number of products and services that resellers, software vendors and hardware manufacturers can offer," said Mitchell Ashley, CTO and General Manager of Cobia. "It's a game changing opportunity for a broad ecosystem of partners who are looking for new revenue sources rather than having to fight it out selling the same traditional fixed appliances with razor thin margins."
The StillSecure Cobia Partner Program includes three components:
- Cobia VAR Program: a program to resell, distribute and service Cobia
- Cobia Platform Program: a program to embed Cobia software onto hardware platforms
- Cobia ISV Program: a program to enable ISVs to port their software applications to Cobia
The Cobia VAR Program helps resellers and systems integrators to increase their market opportunity by reselling Cobia appliances, software and support in addition to building their own installation and value added services. As part of the program, StillSecure provides partners with online sales tools, technical training, support resources and co-marketing opportunities.
"As a value added reseller we are always looking for new ways to differentiate ourselves in the marketplace," said Lou Rubbo, Principal of DirSec, a western regional reseller. "With Cobia, DirSec can solve both networking and security needs on one platform. Plus, Cobia's virtualization capabilities provide us with a whole new market that we can build products and services around."
The Cobia Platform Program is for computer, server, appliance and network infrastructure equipment providers who are interested in integrating Cobia with hardware, or building Cobia into their products. Cobia can be embedded and re-branded under a traditional OEM license or a distribution license. Cobia provides hardware manufacturers with an opportunity to tap into the closed network infrastructure appliance market by offering new software and services with their hardware platforms.
"Portwell is excited to provide the appliance platform with the power and flexibility for Cobia, which results in the convenience of an easy-to-use package," said Frank Shen, Product Marketing Director, American Portwell Technology Inc. "Cobia's open architecture and Portwell's flexible configurations are a perfect fit for companies who need to get their network infrastructure up and running quickly, and leverage the network and security capabilities of Cobia."
The Cobia ISV Program is for partners who would like to offer their products as modules on the Cobia platform. The Cobia ISV program provides a Software Developers Kit (SDK) to speed porting of third party applications. ISVs can leverage Cobia's modular, platform-based approach to bring products to market faster and easier than traditional methods of software distribution.
"The convergence of networking and security onto Cobia's open, modular, software platform is a very logical step in the integration of networking technologies," said Brent Nixon, President, Cymphonix. "It provides an excellent opportunity for companies like Cymphonix because it allows us to bring our network threat protection and bandwidth optimization products to market as part of a larger, converged solution."
The Cobia support and appliance purchasing programs, which were launched in response to community request, make it even easier for network and security administrators to deploy Cobia, a Unified Network Platform, as a key component of their infrastructure. With this announcement, Cobia modules previously in beta are now generally available and offered free-of-charge to the networking and security community.
The Cobia three-tiered support program supplements the free online support and community forums. New support options include standard email support, as well as standard telephone and email support, which are both available Monday-Friday between the hours of 8:00 am - 6:00 pm Mountain Time. StillSecure also offers premium support options available 24x7x365. StillSecure's engineer-delivered support is offered on all modules and purchased by annual subscription, which includes all maintenance, product updates and software upgrades.
"Since StillSecure launched Cobia in April they have continued to demonstrate that they're executing on a new paradigm in networking and security, a better alternative to traditional, fixed-appliances," said Jason Huggett, CISSP. "This announcement brings together the best of both worlds for Cobia users by providing community open source software backed by commercial support options. Cobia can now be deployed in virtually every small and medium business or branch office network."
In addition, StillSecure has launched an online purchasing program for Cobia network appliances that is available on the Cobia download site. Cobia users can purchase either a 1 or 2 U pre-configured appliance that can be easily and quickly plugged directly into the network.
"We are extremely excited by the thousands who have downloaded Cobia and are using it in their networks," said Ashley. "The Cobia appliance is unique because users retain the benefits of open, modular plug-n-play software coupled with an Intel/AMD-based hardware architecture that is highly supportable and upgradeable. Whether it's a ready-to-install appliance or free software installed on off-the-shelf hardware, users can choose the best option for them and have it backed by StillSecure delivered support."
Support and purchase of pre-configured Cobia appliances are also available to resellers as part of the Cobia Partner Program.
The Cobia Unified Network Platform contains the routing, security and core network systems needed to implement a network. Cobia's modular design and Web-based management interface allow users to implement the complete network or a subset by tailoring the Cobia platform to the needs of each network. The Cobia platform is a open source application that is delivered as software and is installed on commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) x86 hardware or as a virtual appliance. This allows users to take advantage of the price, performance, and scalability of general computing hardware as well as advances in virtualization.
StillSecure offers the Cobia software under a dual license: a public community license and a commercial use license. The Cobia platform can be downloaded at cobia.stillsecure.com free of charge under the StillSecure Community License for installation on an x86 host or as a virtual machine (Linux or Windows). Partners participating in the StillSecure Cobia Partner Program will require a commercial use license. Support and the online purchasing program will be available within forty-five days.
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