Prianto signs deal for 'invisibility cloak' appliance

Distributor inks partnership to carry technology developed by Unisys for US military

Distributor Prianto is seeding the UK market for a technology promising to make internet users invisible to hackers.

The firm has been appointed by Unisys to carry its Stealth Solution Suite, a solution originally developed for the US military to help them pass sensitive data across public networks.

Prianto managing director Yuri Pasea (pictured below), who headed up Citrix distributor Centia before it was sold to Arrow, said he had never seen anything like the it during his career.

He likened the appliance, which sits in the datacentre, to throwing an "invisibility cloak" over a PC.

"Stealth activates the Stealth client in your device and that device becomes unseen on the internet. Hackers cannot attack it because they cannot see it," he said.

Pasea asserted that Stealth has the credentials to make traditional security technologies such as firewalls, software encryption and 2FA redundant but stressed it is designed to work alongside existing infrastructure.

"It would be a hard sell saying this replaces everything - it can be presented as a new way of adding a further security blanket," he said.

Unisys will tier partners as either Gold, Platinum or Foundation.

"With deal registration, there is an opportunity to earn up to 35 to 40 per cent [margin] depending on your level of commitment and the opportunities are in the tens of thousands [of pounds]," Pasea said.

Prianto is carrying the product in the UK, Germany and three other European countries. Some 12 UK resellers are in the process of signing up, including Preventia, Sonar, XMA, RealserveIT and EWI.

Nick Peaster, managing director of Preventia, a 15-man security integrator based in West Sussex which works with large financial institutions, retailers and gaming companies, said Stealth was "fairly obviously" ahead of the other vendors bringing technologies to market in this arena.

"It is a more cost-effective and easier-to-manage way of providing true network segmentation and user access management," he said.

"This is not a SME solution - it's for people who really want to understand access control and compliance."

Pasea added: "The pipeline generated is already quite significant - you would be very surprised what level of clients in the government and banking sector we are talking to."

Unisys may not be known for its channel credentials, but Pasea said resellers would not butt heads with the $4bn (£2.6bn)-turnover service juggernaut's direct sales force.

Stealth was only released into the commercial market last summer and Unisys chief executive Edward Coleman is relying on the channel to lead the charge, he added.

"Sometimes Unisys' deals are $2m, $3m or $4m and Stealth is relatively low compared with the deals they are used to, so the emphasis is very much on the channel," said Pasea.

Having said that, resellers who sign up could see average deal sizes of about £100,000, Pasea predicted.