Telco’s to ruin the end point security industry forever

End point security has been a hot button with the explosive growth of mobile devices. Anti-Virus clients have migrated from traditional desktop operating systems and are now available for the key mobile platforms. These clients face both the traditional challenges of Anti-Virus and struggle with the relatively immature nature of these operating systems security wise.

Wedge Networks sees a completely different view of the future of device, computer and enterprise security. They believe that most of the effort around anti-virus and anti-malware should be further up the food chain. More specifically they believe it’s the responsibility of the telco.

Why says Wedge should not all the anti-virus and anti-malware scrubbing be completed at the telco / ISP level. Thus providing a truly clean pipe to the client, regardless of whether the connection is delivered via fixed or cellular networks.

In this scenario, Wedge runs a dedicated security cloud with the telco, which enables inline inspection of inbound and outbound traffic for select clients paying for the premium service. Their system is scalable in ways that have never been possible with existing firewalls, to cope with unprecedented amounts of traffic with virtually no latency.

This approach works well from a Telco perspective. It gives either a key marketing differentiator that a telco can tout its clean / scrubbed connections or offer a highly profitable over the top service at an additional cost per month.

A number of global telcos have started to offer this over the top security offering. Bell Canada now offers this service to its small business clients for a small additional monthly charge.

From a small business owner’s perspective, it avoids the issues of installing and maintaining end point security solutions. It also reduces the number of suppliers involved in their IT environment.

While this approach, isn't a fool proof solution to device and computer security, it’s an interesting perspective on where this technology may go and provides an extra-ordinary opportunity for telco’s to enter a new market.