News | January 7, 2013

AVG Passes 1000 Partner Milestone As Momentum Builds For Small Business Security And IT Management Platform

Source: AVG Business

New AVG CloudCare™ release features increased protection, more granular control and easy conversion options

AMSTERDAM and SAN FRANCISCO – AVG Technologies (NYSE: AVG), the provider of Internet and mobile security to 143 million active users, today demonstrated substantial momentum for its AVG CloudCare™ small business IT management platform by announcing it has signed more than 1000 partners. The news comes as the latest version, AVG CloudCare 2.1, is unveiled at Pepcom, a press event at the 2013 Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.

Since its launch in October 2012, AVG CloudCare has amassed more than 1,000 reseller partners and is already managing tens of thousands of small business endpoints across the UK and North America.  In a November 2012 survey of its resellers, 80% of AVG partners indicated they already perceived increased efficiency with AVG CloudCare.*

“Our success to date has been driven by a close collaboration between our development team and partner base to bring the right product to market at the right time for our customers,” said Mike Foreman, General Manager, for AVG SMB. “Because our leadership team comes from SMB and channel roots, we understand the challenges and needs facing small businesses and the channel. We continue to gather their input to refine and advance the product. Today’s release delivers a number of enhancements and refinements that will make it even easier for our partners to add value to their small business customers via the cloud.”

AVG CloudCare provides small business resellers and MSPs with a free-of-charge, easy-to-use cloud-based administrative platform. The tools within AVG CloudCare allow them to remotely deploy and manage AVG’s award-winning antivirus and content filtering via a single console at prices small businesses can easily afford. Also key to AVG CloudCare is AVG Remote IT. Available currently in Beta, AVG Remote IT is another free tool that lets resellers remotely access and trouble-shoot issues on their customers’ devices from anywhere.

AVG CloudCare Version 2.1 provides protection, flexibility and management enhancements. Highlights include:

  • Business-strength AVG 2013 AntiVirus technology with real-time updates and automated upgrades to protect against emerging threats
  • Improved AVG Content Filtering with one-click scheduling options that allow customers to fine tune web access according to the work schedules of different groups and individuals.
  • Ability to upgrade or transfer customers. With a simple check-in-a-box, older versions of AVG and/or a number of leading alternative security brands can be removed and replaced remotely with the very latest AVG protection.
  • Remote virus vault management. AVG CloudCare 2.1 has the ability to manage virus vault contents on selected devices/device groups and across entire organizations remotely - infected files can be deleted, healed and restored at the click of a button.

Other improvements include: additional alert filtering options, dashboard interface improvements, personalized component installation, a new 24-month billing option, and more.

“With this new version of AVG CloudCare, AVG has boosted its utility as a front end tool for managed services,” said Bill Schubert of Friendly Computers of Georgetown, TX. “In addition to antivirus and content filtering through the AVG CloudCare dashboard, AVG has integrated the critical elements and alerts necessary to quickly monitor the health of a customer’s IT resources. What is remarkable is to see these features appear as a direct outgrowth of meetings and input from us, the channel partners and AVG customers,” Schubert added.

Unlike rival platforms that charge up-front fees based on number of estimated users, AVG CloudCare only charges for services that are actually used.  In addition, individual services can be activated and deactivated as needed.  Other features include remote, one-click deployment for installs and activations, greatly reducing the need for costly on-site visits; keyless licensing and easy-to-use preset policies that remove administrative hassles in managing accounts; automatic alerts that signal customer needs and opportunities, leading to increased sales; customizable reports that showcase AVG channel partners’ added value and fully-functional, no obligation 30 day trial before purchase

AVG CloudCare is available exclusively via AVG resellers in North America, the UK, and Ireland. To find out more and become an AVG CloudCare partner, go to www.avg.com/cloudcare.

* November 2012 AVG CloudCare reseller survey.

Source: AVG Technologies