One Identity product management team decided to renew our effort in keeping Defender a strong player in the marketplace.
The first step is a new release, Defender 5.10, which hits General Availability as we speak. This version received a lot of under-the-hood improvements, as we prepare the code base for a series of future feature updates. The highlight of this release is a major rework of the Defender Security Server - a switch to 64-bit architecture for example enables more than 256 concurrent connections. In response to strong interest from the Russian-speaking markets, we also localized all user-facing UIs in Russian.
Defender 5.10 is just a first step. We have a compelling roadmap for this year, culminating in a major release this Fall.
Two Defender deals from the recent past:
- A global insurance company decided to send the workers home - and secure their remote access with MFA. The company, being a long-time One Identity customer and already having a small Defender installed base, reached out to us and bought a large number of new licenses for Defender, complete with Universal Software Tokens.. The deal size was approximately 85,000 USD.
- Another deal came from a strong MSP player. When one of their clients urgently needed to secure a large work-from-home initiative they launched in response to the pandemic. This meant thousands of new endpoints without the physical security of the office. Rapid deployment of an easy to install and use MFA solution was a critical piece of keeping their systems secure. Our sales representatives quickly pulled together an offer for various rollout sizes (with variable discounts), presenting the customer with multiple choices. The chosen sweet spot involved approximately 3000 users, in a deal worth 150,000 USD.
Both deals reinforce our predictions for MFA. There is a market need for software-based solutions and having a hardware token on your keychain is not the status symbol of privileged users and VIPs as in the past. These solutions are affordable and usable enough to roll out organization-wide, and more and more customers are realizing the value in blanketing their workforce with the added layer of security MFA provides.
