Guardian gets new way to guard

PITTSBURGH--Customers of Guardian Protection Services can now rely on their alarm and monitoring company for more than physical security. Guardian has teamed with TrustELI to offer their Eli service, an "all-in-one broadband security appliance for home and small business." "A big part of our business is in new construction," said Guardian senior vice president of sales and marketing William Graham. "We're already running the infrastructure for the home, so we thought this was a natural service to offer. A lot of times our customers don't know what they want until we sit down with them and explain the options. We know [lack of Internet security is] a growing threat and we've been looking at this segment of the market for some time." He called TrustELI's product, the "first device that offers a total security solution for the network." Eli is a combination router, wired and wireless, plus a DSL modem that Guardian's technicians will install. It provides anti-virus, anti-spam, anti-phishing and content filtering controls, along with a firewall, wireless connectivity and a four-port Ethernet switch. Customers then pay a monthly service fee to TrustELI for automatic security updates that protect their home or small-business network. "We do service and sales," said Graham, "and they do actual maintenance and customer service support." Graham said Guardian has no exclusivity to the product, but "we know the percentage of broadband users is extremely high" among Guardian's customers, and "our goal is to provide turn-key services to our customers, particularly we want to be a turnkey security provider, both physical and network."