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Finns target Oracle ‘insecurity’ with anti-virus clustering

High availability apps major opportunity

Finnish security company Stonesoft has designs on the "particularly insecure" high-availability database market with a scalable clustering product for Trend Micro’s InterScan VirusWall.

Cluster support for other anti-virus products are promised.

CEO and president Hannu Turunen, who worked at Oracle until he started the software firm six years back, said: "Oracle has no secure solution at the moment. The database market is huge. There is practically no secure software solution in the high availability market."

Stonesoft, which has around 100 different US VC backers, according to Turunen, and a projected head count of 65 in the Sophie Antipolis science park, already has deals with Compaq, IBM and others, and government customers as diverse as the Singapore Police force, the Swedish Parliament and US security body the NSA, is likely to turnover around 14.5 million Euros in its third quarter.

Partly funded by Finnish firm Nokia, and with US customers such as Bell South and American Airlines, Stonesoft is set to grow its US sales by 300 per cent this year, according to other executives at the firm.

Turunen said the Compaq deal, which is already in place, will be extended next week, while the firm is also set to firm up its relationship with Trend Micro.

Stonesoft is traded on the Helsinki stock market and did a four-to-one split just before tech stocks took a dive in March.

The high margin firewall business will be just one element in its future strategy, said Turunen. That market is probably worth about $2 billion next year, but the other elements in its business strategy are targeting a business worth an estimated $10 billion, he said.

Currently, the company operates through a 60-country strong indirect channel, but Turunen said that, sooner or later, as the business grew, Stonesoft would face similar challenges to those faced by Oracle.

He said that five years ago, one of Oracle's Italian distributors was doing so well selling its products that it had to acquire the firm. ®

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