Indian security startup offers free software

The company hopes to make money by selling services to small companies

Wep Solutions, an Indian security software and services startup, is offering its unified threat management appliance software free to small businesses around the world.

Taking a cue from India’s large outsourcers, the company plans to make money from selling low-cost services to businesses that download the software from its Web site, said K. Purushottam, joint CEO of Wep.

The company had offered the technology and a managed security service to small and medium-size Indian companies, but it realized that for adoption to take off beyond a few hundred customers, it had to offer the software free worldwide, Purushottam said.

“Our focus now shifts to offering the services to those users who want support as an option,” he said.

The UTM (unified threat management) offering, called Ubiq-Freedom, is available under an open-source license, and includes popular open-source software such as Squid caching proxy for the Web and IP tables for the firewall, said Debasheesh Bagchi [CQ], Wep’s program head for Ubiq-Freedom.

The UTM is offered with an online management console, designed by Wep, that small businesses can use to configure the UTM. The management console will be enhanced with the help of online communities, and subsequently offered as open-source software, Purushottam said.

Purushottam hopes users will be swayed by the pricing for Wep's services. A 10-incident remote support pack for one year costs 9,995 Indian rupees (US$219).

Tags: india, open source, security

Comments

1

Android Application Development

Wed 29/12/2010 - 18:43

Hello,great post. Information are pretty exciting and saved me huge amount of time which I have spend on something else instead of searching posts like this. I am waiting for more.

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Clearswift tips: Guidelines for introducing and policing an effective IT Policy

1. Make it clear that the policy is not about playing ‘Big Brother’ but to ensure the security of employees, company information and data and to safeguard the company’s reputation.
2. Invest time to get buy-in from managers and their teams.
3. Convey the message of flexibility – with regard to social media, it is not about blocking staff usage but working in everyone’s interests to ensure that threats are contained.
4. Introduce a regular company-wide training programme that everyone attends at regular intervals throughout the year, not merely as part of an induction programme.
5. Within the training programme make sure that there are specific examples to demonstrate each rule or regulation, and that there is a clear explanation of the dangers of casual or careless talk on social networking sites. Again use examples, employees need to understand the consequences of raising a throwaway comment that has negative connotations for the business, as much as they need to be aware of dangers of making a more direct but ill-considered attack on a competitor, regulator or even a fellow colleague. They need to be clearly advised on any impact on the company and/or legal action or inquires that may be raised as a result.
6. Alert employees to any changes in policy through regular clear communication.
7. Reinforce the operational policy guidelines regularly, cover everything from blogging to Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter.
8. Ensure that the rules are fair and that they apply throughout the business.
9. Enforce the rules – if there is a deliberate or malicious contravening, disciplinary action needs to be taken. A policy isn’t worth having if it is seen to be lax and unenforced.
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