Allot Ltd. (ALLT) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary
September 16, 2020
Earnings Call Speaker Segments
Barry Spielman
executiveOkay, everyone. Hi, and thanks for taking the time to join us today for our webinar. I'm Barry Spielman, Director of Product Marketing at Allot. And I'm pleased to be joined today by Angel Fernandez, AVP, Security Solutions at Allot. Angel, welcome. Looking forward to doing this.
Angel Fernandez
executiveThank you, Barry. And nice to be here with all of you today.
Barry Spielman
executiveGreat. All right. So today, we have an interesting session planned for everybody in which we will discuss the revenue-generating opportunity for service providers to offer Security as a Service to SMB customers. Now it's no secret that SMBs are vulnerable to threats, threats that are just getting worse during the corona pandemic and are not likely to slow down even when 1 day, and I think I say this for everybody here, we hope it will be a thing of the past, but even then, these cyber threats are going to continue. Now small companies that are resource challenged are turning outward for their cybersecurity needs, and this presents an opportunity to service providers who are already having existing relationships and control 100% of the traffic flow through the network to provide that security. So we are going to be discussing both the need and the opportunity. We will also show you how Telefónica, Spain with its Conexión Segura offering based on Allot's NetworkSecure has had tremendous success in its launch of what is now considered to be one of the most successful SMB mass market offerings in the market. Adoption rates reached double digits in just 5 months. We will be sharing a recording of an interview that we did with Victor Deutsch Franco, Head of Strategy and Transformation programs in Telefónica, Spain and the cybersecurity unit a little bit later in the webinar. But before we get started, just a few quick housekeeping items. Firstly, to let everybody know this webinar is being recorded and will be available on demand on the Resources section of the Allot website on the webinars. Now feel free to ask questions throughout the webinar. [Operator Instructions] At the end of the webinar, we'll have a Q&A session, and we'll answer as many questions as we're able to do. We'll also be sending a position paper put together by here at Allot on security for SMBs on which this webinar is based, and it will be sent out following the session. So with that, I think we're almost ready to get started. But for both my benefit and for that of Angel, I'd actually like to start by asking two quick questions of the audience. Okay, to learn a little bit about who you are, which will be very helpful for both of us. So here is the first of 3 polls that we're going to be doing during this webinar. So if we could just take a second to fill it out. We'd like to know what kind of organization you are. Is it a service provider or perhaps you're an enterprise? If you could fill out this information, we'll wait a couple of seconds, we'll give everyone a chance to take a look. And then we will move on. Give it till 30 seconds, and I will officially end the polling. So go ahead. Almost. I'm going to kill it in a second. All right. Time's up. I'm ending the polling. So there we are. So -- all right. So we see that the vast majority or more than half of the people on this call are enterprises that sell to CSPs. Interesting breakdown, don't you think, Angel, interesting breakdown of people here?
Angel Fernandez
executiveAbsolutely. Yes.
Barry Spielman
executiveI don't think I shared the results. So folks, if I didn't share, now everyone should be able to see them now. Okay. So we have an interesting breakdown here. Okay. So that's the first thing we wanted to ask, and that's important information for us, and we're going to go to a second one now. Hold on, stop sharing results. We stop sharing results. There we go. All right. So now we want to go to a second poll that we just want to know what your position is in your respective organization. So if you can just answer that. Again, we'll give it 30 seconds, and then we will, again, end the polling and move on. Just give us an idea, I think it's very useful to know where people are coming from and what their roles are. Excellent. Okay. I'm going to end the pull. I think everyone's in and polling, and share results so you folks should be able to see. So it seems like we have a pretty good split here between marketing and security, a few folks in operations. And then, I guess, the majority of the folks have been doing other things, but I think the breakdown is pretty good. So that gives us a good idea of who we are talking to. So I'm going to stop sharing results here. And basically now armed with this information I think that we are actually officially ready to go. So Angel, let me start by asking you this. Why is it that SMBs are so vulnerable? And what can they do about it?
Angel Fernandez
executiveOkay. So let's just start with a quick look at the background. And it's something that you already mentioned, it's not new. It's not a new trend that SMBs targets of cyber attacks. However, what we see fundamentally around the world is that there's a huge increase in the cyber attack onto SMBs for many reasons. I mean I will explain probably later on and discuss in the Q&A session, but SMBs represent an easy target for most of the attackers around the world for many reasons, especially the fact that they do not have dedicated IT resources or they do not have the internal knowledge in the company in order to prevent and protect themselves from these attack events, making them very vulnerable. If you mix that with the fact that all these cyber attacks are increasingly representing more benefits for the attackers in terms of ransomware, they're able to get additional revenues from these companies. That makes the perfect storm in terms of making these SMBs like a perfect target for this type of cyber attacks. And obviously, there's a new trend. Unfortunately, we are all in this world of pandemic, and this COVID-19 represents a swift as well in how we are all operating and working, working remote, working from home is as a new trend. And that obviously represents by itself a new surface of attack. So generally speaking, I mean the whole need is triggered by the fact that, as I said, more attacks on SMBS, increasing trend in terms of number of attacks and what is more worsened for the SMBs is that this represents an increased cost not only to protect themselves, but in order to mitigate the attack or when the attack has been produced in order to remediate the effects of the attack. So generally speaking, it is a really bad situation for SMBs in this world of cyber attacks and dependency on the connection to the Internet. Is there anything else you want to add Barry in this particular topic before we jump ahead into the more in depth discussion?
Barry Spielman
executiveYes. Actually, I would actually -- I mean this is very interesting information. Obviously, this -- the costs here are high, but I'd actually like to ask the audience one last question. This is the last poll that we're going to ask, but kind of get an idea of what your thinking is about -- and maybe you could pull up the last poll here. Sort of in an -- in offering a security service for SMBs, which is the most important factor for service providers to take into account? And given the breakdown of the people on this call, it's interesting because you might be asking -- answering this question both from the point of view of the service provider and also from the point of view of the enterprise that might be wanting those services. So go ahead, if you could just take some of these -- it might be more than 1, you go ahead and answer this question. And if we can get your input to this. And this is the last thing that we wanted to ask you, but I think this will be useful. So go ahead. All right. You folks could go ahead and answer this, if you want. Yes. I think we were -- had a little delayed reaction on our part there, getting it launched. But now it's going, I see the numbers going up and down. This is actually kind of cool to watch. I'll give another 10 seconds. Okay. I think that we are good. Well, people are still responding. So we will give it another couple of seconds. All right. I'm going to stop it now. And I think that I'm going to share the results with everyone, so all you can see. And so Angel, let's take a look at this together, and I let you see what you think about it. But I mean, I think that the -- some of these things go together in terms of offerings, but it seems like the emphasis or the one that the most people was the second one, zero-touch network base. What do you think?
Angel Fernandez
executiveWell, that's really well aligned with the messaging and the next slides that we have, where we have identified these 2 particular topics as the most relevant in order to have a proper offering or a relevant offering for an SMB. So if you allow me, I'll go to the -- what we call the dilemma slide, which exactly represents the answers that you guys provided.
Barry Spielman
executiveHere you go. Well, back to you.
Angel Fernandez
executiveOkay. Very good. So what we call -- let me just chunk here, what we call the dilemma. So going back to the SMB reality. Where are SMBs right now? And when I mean SMBS, I mean, these type of companies that do not have a proper IT or security department within them. And therefore, they have a limited budget in order to be spent on security or IT resources or they do not have the internal knowledge. And here, we can count hundreds of thousands of enterprises in almost any country. I'm not referring to these big enterprises with the security IT department, but smaller size with this limitation in terms of knowledge and IT resources. The reality that they have is that they usually work in a very nonhomogeneous type of environment. So they have different type of access to the Internet. They're using different resources. So because they do not have like a very planned IT structure that ends up in a kind of very complex environment to be managed from their perspective and mostly when it comes around security. These companies are more and more aware about threats on the internet for many reasons, ads, information on any type of media, social media and so on. And in many cases, because they also suffer themselves these type of cyber attacks, and they know the cost that represents to them. Not only because of cyber ransomware attack, as an example, where they have to pay to rescue their files or their relevant information to continue operating, but as well, the cost of not having an internet connection or something that is not stable, not working properly. Most of the activities of these SMBs rely on this internet connectivity. So any problem around it or any problem that compromises this type of connectivity in the end compromises their ability to make money and revenues, which is the end goal of the company itself. And overall, I mean very much related to the first topic. I mean these companies, their business, their heart, their knowledge. It's not around IP or cybersecurity. Some of these companies will be manufacturing some type of product. Some of the companies will provide services, but in reality, they don't know how to address this need, this awareness on threats that they have, and they're looking for a partner. And this -- in this respect is kind of relevant. One survey that we conducted within Allot where we identified that around 60% of these SMBs companies are looking actively for a partner to provide the security that they demand. So they look for someone external to provide their security, and they're willing to pay for it, which is most important. Let's look at it from the CSP, from the ISP perspective. Obviously, if my customer, the SMB, in this case, is someone that has limited resources on IT, I need to provide a solution, which is, let's call it, low cost. I mean I cannot come to an SMB of, for the sake of example, 10 employees and deploy on-site, on-premise a completely cybersecurity infrastructure because from a cost perspective, from an ownership perspective, that's in no-go. There's no business case behind it. Obviously, the CSP or the ISP will be looking for a solution that is easy to activate, that I don't have to go inside, that I can do that remotely from the network because that will allow me to deploy the security solution to many hundreds of thousands of SMBs, completely transferring to them. It's something that I don't -- from a CSP perspective, I mean, I don't want to customize for each one of my individual SMBs. I want to have a solution that works for all of them, at every time that I want to add one additional SMB and provide this type of security services, I don't have to do anything complex. It's just one click in a button. And finally, I want to have something that is as self-managed as possible. So I can delegate into the SMB the configuration of the system, the ability to get the reports, the ability to show the value of the security solution. Having said that, I mean this is, again, a perfect mix between the need on the SMB side and the type of solution that the CSP can provide. And when I said 60% of the SMBs are looking for someone to provide this type of security solutions. The bottom line of the survey is that in most of the cases, in terms of performance, these SMBs are looking to the ISP or the CSP in order to be the one that provides not only the connectivity, but as well the security solution. So that means that CSPs are in a unique position in order to offer these type of solutions to SMB customers. Okay. So this is the dilemma. I have a customer who is looking for a number of things. I have the position of the CSP, who is looking for a type of solution that provides or fulfill these needs in my SMB customer. So what is the proposed solution from the Allot perspective? Okay. Let me introduce you briefly to the overall Allot portfolio when it comes to security for the SMB. Let me just guide you through this slide for a second. So this is a very, very high level representation of what a network can be. We can have a mobile operator. We can have a fixed operator. So this is represented by this mobile section up in the slide or the business that we have done in the slide. This can be a fixed access or mobile access. Then we have the network. And basically, we have a configuration where we can offer from the Allot perspective, a number of products, number of products specifically for these -- for the SMB. The first one is NetworkSecure. You have that in the cloud. So basically, that means a security service that when it's deployed in the core of the network of the CSP, it's able to provide security both to a mobile or a business -- or a fixed, sorry, SMB customer from the network he saw, the network of the operator. That is a product called NetworkSecure. We have another product, which is called EndpointSecure. This is the piece of software that you will install in your Windows, your Mac, your Android, your iOS and will provide security specifically within the device. I mean you are very familiar with all these type of solutions. So it's what we call a device type of solution device-based security. And then we have another product, which is BusinessSecure. This is a security that we are offering to be deployed within the CPE, the router that you might have in your fixed connection in your SMB. So we are able to deploy software within the router and provide security from the router itself. One of the advantages of the Allot portfolio is that each one of these products can work either independently. So we can have a deployment of only NetworkSecure and having security from the network or we can have the Endpoint, just the device or we can have the BusinessSecure being deployed in the router, or we can make them work together. What does that mean? That means that I can have an ISP, which selects to deploy different products in this portfolio that I presented, and they will work seamlessly and transformly for the end user, in this case, the SMB. So let me just give you one example. If there is an SMB or an -- or operator, in this case, an ISP, that decides to launch a product, which is based on NetworkSecure and EndpointSecure, that means that this ISP will offer a product that filters both in the network and filters both in the device, but the beauty of the solution is that we can do that in a completely transparent and unified way to the SMB. So the SMB will have one management interface to configure policies, to get reports, do anything that relates to the management of the solution, transparently both for NetworkSecure and EndpointSecure. So as an example, if I define a policy which restricts access to a particular type of content or protects the user from a particular threat on the Internet, I will configure it at once, and the system will take care of spreading that configuration across the NetworkSecure deployment in the ISP network and the number of endpoints, which are associated to that SMB. So that's the concept of unified security that is part of the Allot Secure portfolio. However, today, we will focus our presentation on one of the particular products, which is NetworkSecure. And as I said, NetworkSecure can work either unified with the rest of the products in the portfolio or completely stand-alone. We have customers of both types. In the particular, again, example, today, we will focus on the scenario where NetworkSecure is the only product deployed. And let's see what the benefits are. Okay. So what are the main attributes of NetworkSecure? Again, just to be -- remind us all, it's security deployed at the core of the ISP network. It's not a cloud in an Amazon cloud or Azure or anything, it's deployed within the core of the operators. So the traffic remains at the heart of the ISP. So the first thing is that it's very easy to activate service. As it's deployed in the network, it's just one click in a button from the ISP perspective in order to onboard an SMB into the security service. So there's no need to install anything on any device, no need to configure anything on devices, being mobile, being fixed. It's a zero-touch activation per definition as it's a network-based service. That allows very high adoption rates for two reasons: because of the easy activation that we mentioned, and as well, because the product itself, NetworkSecure, comes with a set of tools that allows the CSP to prove the value to the customer, to the SMB, in this case. As an example, if we are providing security to the SMB, but we are not showing any information, then obviously, the SMB is secure, but there is no perception of the value of this service. NetworkSecure will be able to provide this visibility of the value in a number of different forms. One of them, as an example, is I can send you -- the owner of the SMB or the responsible for the SMB, I can send you a report on a weekly, monthly, biweekly, whatever we configure, report that solves all the benefits that he's getting from the service, number of blocks, number of attacks, which have been prevented and a number of things. So zero activation, clientless, zero-touch installation, configuration and so on, together with all these awareness tools allows us to reach very high adoption rates in some of our customers easily over the 30% adoption of the whole SMB customer base, and we'll see an example later on. This is a service that can be completely customized. As we said before, one of the needs of the SMB is to be able to customize the solution themselves. I -- as a SMB owner, I want to define the policies that apply for myself, how to be protected, what type of content item are on my employees to access and so on and so forth. I want to see reports on my own activity, not general reports on the overall network. This is something that is part of this personalization of these services. So I will feel the security service offer from the network as my own security service, comprehensive security, including all these technologies that allows the network to protect the connection for the SMB, malware, phishing, botnets and so on. All that is included within the solution, and we'll see a couple of more detailed items or topics around it in a minute. Obviously, with browsing controls, meaning the ability to block a specific content or a specific URLs, domains, whatever you want to, I don't know, half of my employees spending the time on sites that I don't think are adding value to my business. And of course, from the network's perspective or the ISP perspective is analysis scalability. I mean we do have NetworkSecure deployments with millions of individuals, each one of them being able to configure their own policies, get their own reports and so on. So the scalability of the platform is one of the key advantages. And again, we can talk of hundreds of thousands or millions of business units being managed by one of these solutions. If we drill down a little bit more into what NetworkSecure can do on top of this zero-touch and no configuration and high adoption rates. If we look at the features, a very high level, because actually, we don't really have a lot of time in the session today, but I'm sure of ourselves, representatives from the sales will be happy to talk to you and elaborate more on each one of them. We can break this down into 2 main pillars, what we can call productivity or protection. Productivity refers to configuring my connection or the connection of my employees, to the Internet in a way that they are accessing the type of content that I believe is relevant for the activity with the SMB or for the productivity of my business like the configuration of type of content or specific sites domains that I don't want them to access or the ability to restrict the specific applications. As an example, Item 1, my employees to spend the whole day on Facebook, being the web or the application. So I would have the mechanisms to restrict that type of content or at least restrict it during the working hours. So they work and afterwards, they can do whatever they want. And obviously, I can get reports on the activity of these employees when using the SMB resources. In terms of protection, it includes any sort of protection that we can provide from the network. So here, we're counting malware, phishing, botnets. We can as well, by means of NetworkSecure, inspect real time the traffic, mean that if, as an example, you are downloading an infected file from a very reputable and untrusted domain, we can inspect the file because design was being attacked, and this file was stored there. We can inspect this file and block it because of this real-time analysis. We can provide as well a firewall as part of this protection. So you were able to restrict what type of connections your company can do to the outside where audience and what it can do to your company. And by means of adding additional products like the endpoint security that we said before, we can extend the capabilities into what happens in the mobile case for the Optenet scenario when the employee, as an example, moves to a WiFi connection, which is not part of the 4G or 5G connection in the operator. So all these capabilities are part of the existing capabilities in NetworkSecure, all of things configurable. So I, as the owner, or the representative of the SMB, I'll have the option to compete all those things to work exactly as I want and get reports both from the activity or productivity of my employees or the protection that the system is providing to my connection or providing to the SMB. What type of SMBs or markets are we currently serving with NetworkSecure? Actually, this works for all types of markets or SMBs. The most typical scenario are the ones that we are depicting in this particular slide. So we have the fixed network scenario. So it's an SMB with a number of premises, all of them fixed line connections, which are accessing the Internet by means of a router or fiber or whatever they are accessing. So from the network, we are able to provide the protection to any connection that comes from this router and, therefore, protect all the activities of the SMB. There are all SMBs, which are purely mobile. So all the employees have access to the Internet by means of a mobile connection, again, exactly the same. So in this case, as we will be sitting within the mobile network, we will be able to provide the protection to any type of data path that goes from these mobile devices. Newest scenario that is coming up lately very frequently, which is the fixed line of access. So it's a router with a wireless connection. We'll see a lot of these examples with the new 5G technology that is being deployed. So -- but this is very similar to the fixed network, at least from the security perspective, we will have the ability to protect the SMB that is asking the Internet by this mechanism. And finally, we see as well several different scenarios of converged SMBs. So they will have a number of infrastructures or premises on the fixed network. They will have a number of devices, which are mobile and they are connected to the Internet by means of 4G, 5G. The beauty of the solution is that it doesn't really matter how is the access to the Internet. We will have the ability to group all these fixed and mobile connections into one single conceptual SMB, and allow the manager of that SMB to manage all the devices, all the routers in a very seamless, easy and transparent way. So in a nutshell, again, just to summarize all the information that I provided, NetworkSecure, zero-touch, clientless, no configuration and that, together with all these tools that allows us not only to provide the security or the productivity policies that are needed by the SMB, but as well as these awareness tools that will allow the ISP to prove the value to the ISP will allow as well the SMB to reach a very, very high portion rate, again, 30s, 40s, 50s percents in terms of the whole set of SMBs that are part of the SMB -- of the ISP, sorry. And just to complete that, and so there is not always the lot peach in terms of what the product does, doesn't do and so on. We wanted to share with you a short video from one of our customers, Telefónica, from Victor Deutsch. He's Head of the Strategy within Telefónica, in particular within the enterprise and SMB segment. And we'd like to spend the next few minutes. This is a short video, but it illustrates our experience with Telefónica as a partner to launch this type of SMB-oriented security to the SMB market. And as Barry mentioned before, I mean, double-digit penetration within the first year, very successful customers very happy with a very high NPS record, but let us just see, I guess, yourselves and the words of one of our partners. [Presentation]
Angel Fernandez
executiveOkay. So I hope you enjoyed the video. And let me -- okay. So let me just conclude with a quick recap on some of the ideas that we've been going through in the presentation. So I guess we concluded, and it doesn't come as a surprise. I mean SMBs are vulnerable for a number of reasons because they do not have the knowledge, because they are an easy target for cyber attackers, because they can pay more and more for rescuing their information in case of ransomware or the impact on the internet connectivity is more and more. And CSPs are in a unique position because they can offer the type of services that we did require or described as required by SMBs in terms of zero activations, is it configured? And not only that, but because the perception of the SMB as a customer is that the ISP is the one that needs to provide this additional security. So if you combine more things, the SMB will probably turn to the CSP in order to get this solution from them. We have a portfolio in Allot that covers all the aspects of the security that can be offered to the SMB market. We reviewed briefly EndpointSecure, like security in the device; BusinessSecure, security from the router; and NetworkSecure and the concept of unified security as this umbrella that can make them work together seamlessly and transfer in to the SMB, providing the end-to-end security protection in all the aspects, and how each one of them can also work in stand-alone. And then in particular, we focused on NetworkSecure as the security solution when being offered from the core of the network and the ISP can provide this zero-touch, easy activation and all the tools and the security technologies that will allow the CSP to offer a proper and comprehensive security solution to the SMB. And we exemplified that with one of our partners of NetworkSecure, which is Telefónica. So all in all, there is a need. CSP is in a unique position to offer that type of security and a lot as a partner to fulfill the technology or to provide the technology to the ISP to make this SMB need a proper and a successful business opportunity. And as such, this is the end of the presentation. And in case you have any questions or any doubts, I'll be happy to address them as much as I can.
Barry Spielman
executiveAll right. Angel, first of all, thank you very much. That was great. Before we move to the Q&A, and we have a whole bunch of questions, so an opportunity again to reach out to the audience, send them in. I'm not sure we'll get a chance to answer them all, but send them in, and we'll get a second move to the questions. I was just noticing, when I was looking at the video, and it's not the first time I've watched it with Victor shaking hands with Juan at the end of the thing. The good old days when we're actually able to shake hands with people. It just says a little bit where we are now, but -- okay.
Barry Spielman
executiveSo folks, we're going to move to the Q&A. Like I said, we have a whole bunch of questions. I'm just going to jump right in here, and I'll start reading them out to you, Angel, okay. And again, audience, feel free to continue to ask. And what we can answer, we will, and we'll do the best we can. So here is, let's see, not in any particular order here, okay? So this is not in any particular order. Start with this one. How do you set up policies? Do you have a portal for policies or you have to configure every device or service?
Angel Fernandez
executiveOkay. That's actually a very good question, and it impacts as well the simplicity of the product from the SMB perspective. There are different options. There is a portal, obviously, a web portal where you can configure your policies. So let's say, you are the SMB owner and you want to configure the policies for your SMB employees or for your connection. There is a portal and as part of the product where I can log in, and I can do my configuration and define what type of content should be added or what type of threats should be blocked or the type of reports that I want to get proactively and I select a different option. So all the flexibility in order to really squeeze the system and make it work as I want. There's also an application, so I can have an application installed in my mobile device, which does exactly the same as the portal. It's is just a different format. And we also provide APIs. So in case there is a need for the ISP to integrate a solution into their own portal or their own application, they can easily do that by means of the existing APIs. And for that, well, we provide all sorts of help and support for the ISP for that integration.
Barry Spielman
executiveGreat. About which router vendors do you support?
Angel Fernandez
executiveThat's a very good question. Okay. In this particular question, it's not obviously about NetworkSecure, but it's about BusinessSecure. So just to remind us all, it is the piece of security that I deploy within the router. And as such, we need to integrate with the router. The complexity, so to say, of this type of security solutions that are deployed within the router is that they require an integration with a specific router. So therefore, there needs to be some previous work on our side in order to integrate with the router. We have integrations with the major -- the vendors of routers. We have integrations with CTP, with Huawei and so on and so forth. So this is something that we are used to. And also, the way we built our software should a new router come, because the modularity and the way we build, it is a small adaptation on our site to integrate with the [ permit ] of any router. We haven't found any router that we cannot adapt to. And we're the bare legacy ones, and also the fact that the software does not consume a lot of resources helps us integrate with routers, which are very scarce in the sort of resources, which are these legacy routers.
Barry Spielman
executiveExcellent. Okay. Great. So here's a question. It's a little bit long, but I think it's a very good one, so I'm going to read it out. Okay. The majority of businesses are micro businesses between 1 to 10 people, enterprise security never really addressed this opportunity. Now these people are working at home, even more distributed. They are using consumer security products, sometimes supplied via their home broadband. Why is Allot's package, better than consumer security products? And from the CSP point of view, how can they sell or deploy such a product to the household, which is where the workers are now. As we know, there is a hard line between B2C and B2B. And this product really needs to be an option deployed on the B2C basis, i.e., workers at home?
Angel Fernandez
executiveYes. Okay. That's actually a very good question. Traditionally, this micro businesses as it's asked or part of the question are using consumer-based products. And as such, even though these products might facilitate or provide a security that is needed in SMB, they fall short in many aspects. And -- as an example, and these consumer products will probably address the need of a parental control, but the set of restrictions that I can apply to a family is expected to be different or slightly different to the ones in this micro business. There are functionalities, which are not usually present in consumer products that might be needed in the SMB market, even for small micro services, like the ability to protect my data center, if I have it within my premises, in terms of setting up firewall policies specifically for my data center. So only a specific connections are allowed or specific IPs and so on. So for the microservices where it's true that the need is close to the consumer, but it's not exactly like the consumer. We go one step beyond. It might be that it might be. I mean it's a reality that I, as an owner of the SMB, I want to provide a seamless security and a seamless configuration to all my employees. So each one of them is deploying and installing at home, a different solution provided by the high-speed that is served in the home. In the end, I don't have this level of aggregation. I don't have the simplicity or the easy way and easy way to configure the policies for everyone so that everyone has this seamless experience in terms of security. I will not be able to get an aggregator report as an example. That's a very basic example, but I hope it illustrates this need of aggregation. So in the end, from a technology-wise perspective, it might be that it's close to the type of product that a microservice or microbusiness might need, but the way it's positioned, the specific figures -- features, mostly the aggregation layer, the umbrella that will bring all the security together into a single management interface is something that is lacking all this type of consumer security products that are used, in some cases, by micro businesses.
Barry Spielman
executiveI have another question. I mean -- I think it's somewhat connected. Do we need to buy different licenses for SMBs to implement? I hope I got that question right.
Angel Fernandez
executiveI guess -- I'm not sure I either understand the question, but I'll try to answer that. Basically, the way it works for NetworkSecure, I mean, which is the topic of the discussion. We, from a lot, we'll deploy the solution within the operative network. And then the ISP will resell this service to the SMB. There is no need to deploy any local license in the SMB or anything like that. It's just a contract, let's say, a subscription that probably you can do even on the web or on your ISP and immediately, you get security by default. So from the CSP perspective and from the SMB perspective, we are just one click in a box and used to getting security, but I'm not sure that's the backbone of the question.
Barry Spielman
executiveI think that's what I wanted -- we got to go with that answer, though. So we're good. Can you elaborate on difference -- I'll see if I get it. Can you elaborate on differences between the customer portal and the security services manager? Does that make sense? Am I reading that right? Can you elaborate on differences between the customer portal and security services manager? I'm not sure...
Angel Fernandez
executiveI'm not sure I understand. Right. So that's where -- I'm not sure I understand the question. Just trying to answer that in case I mean. What we provide is this portal, which in some cases is the security services manager quote as well, which will allow basically the CSP to manage the overall solution from that perspective and the SMB to manage his particular configuration, but again, I'm not sure that is exactly the backbone of the question.
Barry Spielman
executiveOkay. How much support is required to support the SMBs? I lost it. We're still getting questions. How much support is required to support the SMBs by the operator?
Angel Fernandez
executiveI guess the question refers to -- okay, what happens once the SMB starts getting the security service. Will the operator get daily cost from the SMB, asking how to configure or how to do something. The answer to that is, in our experience, there are usually no calls to the CRM or support center in the sense that the management interface is very intuitive. It has a lot of help. It even includes online help on how to do things. So in the end, the SMB manager, the one that is figuring the solution for the SMB, does not really have to trigger any request or any questions to anyone. They can do that themselves very intuitively. So the number of calls to the CRM is almost non-noticing. That's our experience.
Barry Spielman
executiveI'll take just a few more because we're running out of time here, but is there a use case for NetworkSecure for B2C? If yes, what are the best practices, business pricing models to make this successful?
Angel Fernandez
executiveB2C. Okay. Usually, and I hope I understand properly the question. B2C is what we, in our naming convention, at least, refer to the ISP offering that we secured to the consumer market. In this particular case, of course, there is a business case. Some of our largest operators, Telefónica is one of them. Our offering as well NetworkSecure to the consumer market, and we do have deployments across many Tier 1 operators with millions of consumer subscribers being protected by NetworkSecure.
Barry Spielman
executiveOkay. On which level is the security offered? At only on the application level or also on the communication-based level covered most of the time by network providers? Do you understand?
Angel Fernandez
executiveNo, I'm not sure I understand that question. Is there any additional explanation?
Barry Spielman
executiveI'm reading -- I'm reading it as it comes, but if we can't get it, we'll move on because we have a very limited amount of time, basically another couple of minutes.
Angel Fernandez
executiveI try -- I'll try to get what the question is about. I guess it refers to whether we are protecting the connection itself or we are providing some kind of protection for the software that is running on the device, let's say. NetworkSecure, in this case -- and again, I'm guessing the question. So I'll try to answer what I guess is the right answer. NetworkSecure provides security on the connectivity, let's say, this concept of clean pipe. So NetworkSecure will be able to provide completely agnostic to what is happening in the device, whether it's an application, a browser or something happening in the background, it will be able to provide this clean pipes, so cleaning and blocking anything that -- which is considered to be a threat in that connectivity, but it's not linked to the application that might be running on any device. And I hope I answered the question, but again here...
Barry Spielman
executiveWe got a response that this is the scope of the question, so thank you. You got it.
Angel Fernandez
executiveI get it right.
Barry Spielman
executiveExcellent. So yes, last 2 questions for you. Okay because then we're going to wrap it up. These are more technical. And is it possible to integrate with active directory on the premises of the customer?
Angel Fernandez
executiveOkay. We have some experiences with that in the past, but the problem is the following. So technically, it will be possible, but the problem is that as this solution resides in the network, the SMB or the enterprise needs to open a connection between the active directory, which is sitting in the -- sorry, in the SMB or the enterprise, they need to open this connection to some device, which is sitting in the network. That is usually considered a security threat. So the reality is that even we might be able to support it. We don't have, in the end, any customer who is willing to go in this direction because of security concerns mostly. No one wants to open the active directory to the outside world.
Barry Spielman
executiveGot it. I'll say the last one for you. Can you provide some general figures on the tax on SMBs?
Angel Fernandez
executiveYes, sure. Okay. That's a very, very good question, I would say. So this is coming from rough figures that we have from existing customers. That deploy networks secure for the SMB market. So just to give you a feeling, we struck reports and we get reports on how NetworkSecure is protecting the SMB customers. And we found that within one particular month, on average, at least 1 out of 2 end users, I mean, employees that are being protected by the security service. At least for its 1 out of 2 we have protected some kind of threat meaning some kind of malware, some kind of spyware, some kind of connection to a common in control, phishing and so on. So again, for 50% of the unique users, let's call it, we have some level of protection or we protected them in each and every single month. In terms of overall figures, what we found out is that on average of for each user we'll be protecting them like 8 to 10 different threats a month. So you can count. So I mean that comes like hundreds of thousands of threats that we protect every single month to each one of our overall customers. And if you make the numbers for SMB, that means several tens of protections or threats detected and blocked for each one of the SMBs.
Barry Spielman
executiveExcellent. Okay. I'm going to call it there because we got -- we still got a whole bunch more and we're just out of time. And so first of all, to the audience, thank you for sending in those questions. Feel free to continue to reach out to us. And like Angel said earlier, I'm sure our folks would be happy to speak with you and talk to you. So first of all, let me thank you, Angel, for your presentation today. I certainly enjoyed it based on the questions we got, you really did a pretty good job there. So thank you. I also want to thank the audience. We realize it's in the middle of the day, taking the time to join us is -- we appreciate it. Taking a time from your busy schedules. I want to remind everybody that the session was recorded and will be available on demand and that we're going to be sending a position paper that we put together. Basically, this webinar was based on it or maybe it's the other way around, paper-based then a webinar, but we'll be selling that out to folks as well. So with that, that brings us to the conclusion of the webinar today. We look forward to hosting you again on our upcoming webinars, and we have a bunch of them coming up. Thank you for all for joining. Stay safe in these trying times, and enjoy the rest of your day.
Angel Fernandez
executiveThank you, everyone.
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