Intel recently announced that it would be ending its technical support for its SaaS email archiving, encryption, and protection solutions. The service will end in January of 2017. These suite of services were part of the McAfee acquisition of MX Logic back in 2009.
The decision to sunset the MX Logic solution was described as a strategy to create "solutions for the endpoint, cloud, threat detection, and management that will ensure the security of the endpoint and cloud and all data traversing in between." In order to focus on these new areas, Intel will be leaving its SaaS acquisitions behind.
What Does This Mean For MSPs?
Speaking personally, I know many MSPs who successfully used MX Logic technology in their managed services practice. Intel is recommending another provider for its partners who will be affected by this strategic decision. While it is unclear why Intel is making this decision the impact to MSPs could be significant. The migration challenges alone will be a lot for MSPs to handle.
MSPs, however, are not without options as they face the sunsetting of these products. Already, technology vendors like Sophos (who recently acquired email archiving and protection vendor Reflexion) are busy getting ready to offer MSPs a choice to Intel.
"The news about Intel Security retiring the McAfee SaaS line of products including their email solutions from their MX Logic product definitely came as a surprise, but as Sophos continues to invest in cloud security it’s a great opportunity for us to grow the business and help some partners find a new solution they can rely on," said Bill Lucchini, GM and SVP of Sophos’s Cloud Security Group.
While this isn't the first time a technology acquisition has been discontinued by a major vendor, it does beg the question as to Intel's plans for dominance in the real of cybersecurity, specifically email protection. In light of all the email related issues hitting the public domain, it is somewhat puzzling why Intel would decide to make this move when the call for email protection is rising, not falling. For the time being, we will simply wait and see how the channel reacts but it is good to witness the profession willing and capable of absorbing such a strategy shift.
