Netbox Blue Partners with ESET to Unify Best of Breed Security Solutions for SMBs

Netbox Blue, Australia's leading internet and email security and management provider and ESET, the leader in proactive threat protection have signed a Strategic Partnership Agreement to offer ESET's award-winning NOD32 Antivirus as an option in Netbox Blue's full line of Unified Threat Management (UTM) and virtualized security solutions. As a result of the union, small-to-medium sized businesses (SMBs) will have access to Netbox Blue's integrated security and management suite and full line of localized security solutions through ESET's vast network of worldwide partners.

The two companies will be sharing at stand at CeBIT Australia this week (stand U40) to build on the success of their ongoing partnership. The union has already resulted in Netbox Blue securing a multi-million dollar Master Distribution Agreement with Canon ITS Japan.

Netbox Blue is supplying Canon with up to 500 email filtering appliances a month. The SpamCheckerTM appliance, as it is known in Japan, is a simple to use email filtering and content control solution. The drop in appliance is the result of nine months of co-development between Netbox Blue and Canon ITS Japan and is specifically designed to suit the SME market in Japan.

"The ESET partnership formalizes our joint commitment and focus on aggressively growing our mutual business in the global SMB market," Netbox Blue Chairman John Fison says. "By combining our customized UTM, content filtering and management solutions with the industry's fastest, lightest and most accurate antivirus solution, ESET NOD32 Antivirus, we are providing ESET's partners with the ideal value proposition for SMBs - security that is not only effective, but easy to deploy, use and manage."

In addition to combining ESET's unique antivirus engine with Netbox Blue's all-in-one gateway appliances and virtualized security solutions, customers and partners will receive the following benefits:

• Flexibility of deployment - The unique offering can be deployed in various forms, including Netbox Blue's small form factor appliance, an IBM-based gateway server or as a soft appliance running in a virtual VMware environment.
• Customized and localized solutions - Netbox Blue and ESET will work with global distributors to meet individual territory requirements and customization needs.
• Netbox Blue's semi-managed service - Customers will receive seamless push updates of new security definitions - including the ESET NOD32 Antivirus, remote monitoring of the underlying hardware platform and a back up service for the configuration settings to facilitate restoration in the event of a disaster.
• IBM on-site support - IBM server customers receive on-site global hardware support from IBM as a result of the NetBox Blue relationship.

"ESET and Netbox Blue have been working closely for over five years to help meet the needs of our SMB customers around the globe. As this market segment continues to rapidly expand, we are pleased to formalize our relationship and offer our partners and customers a world class solution," CEO of ESET, LLC Anton Zajac says. "Netbox Blue and ESET both have a long history in the SMB market, and we remain laser-focused on delivering solutions targeted to this segment."

Availability and Pricing

Netbox Blue will supply the ESET / Netbox Blue solution exclusively through ESET's global distribution channel. The pricing model is dependent on the level of customisation required, support and the individual territory needs. ESET has a rapidly growing OEM and security product business, and sees this as a high growth area and a method for providing customized solutions to meet local market conditions.

About ESET NOD32 Antivirus

Built on the award-winning ThreatSense engine, ESET NOD32 Antivirus is a tightly integrated security solution that proactively detects and disables viruses, spyware, adware, phishing, rootkits, and other Internet threats. It is the only antivirus technology that has not missed an "in-the-wild" virus in Virus Bulletin VB 100 testing over the past nine years, while producing only one false-positive during that time. It was also named "Best Antivirus Product" of 2006 and 2007 by AV-Comparatives.