Webroot expands Continuum partnership around DNS filtering as they build out platform strategy

Webroot adds their DNS Protection at no cost for customers using Continuum Security Profile & Protect, as the companies extend their tight strategic relationship.

Charlie Tomeo, Vice President of Worldwide Business Sales at Webroot

Cybersecurity vendor Webroot has enhanced their long-standing partnership with remote monitoring and management [RMM] provider Continuum. Webroot SecureAnywhere DNS Protection has been integrated within Continuum Security Profile & Protect service, providing increased protection against malicious websites. Even bigger news is coming next year, however, as Webroot melds its individual product offerings into more of a platform strategy with greater product integration.

Webroot is a regular fixture on the show floor at events of companies who sell RMM and PSA systems to MSPs, as they partner extensively with these companies. However, they have a particularly strong relationship with Continuum. The two companies have had a strategic partnership since 2015, through which Webroot’s SecureAnywhere Business Endpoint Protection. software is bundled within Continuum.

“We have had a strong relationship with Continuum for years, which we are now supplementing by adding our DNS product,” said Charlie Tomeo, Vice President of Worldwide Business Sales at Webroot. Webroot also has relationships with Kaseya, Datto, Atera, and NinjaRMM, although these, unlike the Continuum partnership, are non-exclusive relationships.

Webroot introduced their DNS domain-level filtering service in 2017, which provides protection against malware infections from Web browsing, using the same platform as their endpoint offering. The company says that DNS Protection stops 88 per cent of web-borne malware before it reaches an organization’s network by automatically applying defenses at the network perimeter.

Designed for MSPs, the DNS Protection offering is managed through the Webroot Global Site Manager, and is designed to be easy to implement. The Webroot BrightCloud Threat Intelligence under the hood provides for category-based internet usage restrictions with flexible policy management that can be configured for the corporate network, guest WiFi, roaming users, and groups or individuals within an organization.

DNS protection is included at no extra cost for all devices protected using Continuum Security Profile & Protect. The integration lets  Continuum’s MSP customers self-provision DNS licensing through the Continuum console.

“We have a strong focus on cybersecurity in the MSP and SMB space, and this is another block in our endpoint strategy,” Tomeo said.

Look for that strategy to be developed further in 2019, with a deeper focus on cross-integration between the products to create what is essentially more of a platform strategy.

“By the middle of next year, we will be building that strategy out,” Tomeo said. “We will be integrating products more with one another than we do now, leveraging their capabilities, such as the ability to block phishing attacks.

“It will create more of a security platform, compared to having individual products,” Tomeo stated.”