Microsoft promised to invest $50 million to support its security resellers and wants its channel to emphasize the convergence of security and management, the company said Wednesday at its Worldwide Partner Conference.
The money will be spent on hiring more Microsoft security product salespeople and on a increasing its “Easy, Easier” marketing campaign, reports Integrated mar.com. This sells people on the idea that defending against threats is easy with Forefront.
It’s an entertaining ad – if you haven’t seen it, click here. ( Depicting the IT guy fending off a zombie, a spy, an alien and a ninja.)
The money will also go toward training programs for Microsoft resellers. Thes programs are being revamped to blend management and security and to add identity management certificates.
Microsoft certainly has a right to pour money into its own personal entourage of security professionals. As COO Kevin Turner said at the conference on Monday. “We are not a 501C organization. We’re here to sell stuff.”
Yet, it hurts its own efforts when it drags its feet on cooperating with others when such cooperation would mean better security for all the good guys. When a bug was found in Internet Explorer that could make Firefox launch and execute malicious code …
“Microsoft Security Program Manager Mark Griesi said that the bug was not his company’s problem. “We don’t feel that there’s an issue in IE and therefore there’s nothing to be fixed,” he said Tuesday.”
Nice, huh?
