Kristel Communication Partners with Paessler

Kristel Communication, a Kenyan-based distributor of cybersecurity solutions, has partnered with Paessler, a German network monitoring software leader, to provide the networking monitoring software Paessler Router Traffic Grapher (PRTG).

PRTG targets start-ups and small and medium-sized enterprise companies and it enables firms to monitor all their systems, devices, traffic, and other applications in their infrastructure while offering real-time alerts.

Speaking during the launch of the product in East Africa, Ben Obinju, Kristen’s CEO, termed the partnership timely because it comes when there have been increased cybersecurity threats targeting businesses in the African region. “As a cybersecurity company, we have been working to ensure all our clients are cyber resilient by helping them mitigate the day-to-day risks that originate from cyber threats. Other than offering strategic advice to our clients we, therefore, deliver strategic solutions to such threats through products such as PRTG which we are launching today,” he said.

According to Paessler, the availability of software in the market will enable local firms to optimize the usage of their infrastructure by enabling systems managers to stay on top of all processes with the help of the software. PRTG allows organisations to respond to unexpected changes in the system by triggering real-time notifications thus decreasing the downtime which can easily lead to losses and delays in delivering crucial functions.

“Many organisations in the region have their IT faculties monitoring the functionalities of the various tools in their infrastructure which is not their role. PRTG will therefore enable organizations to optimize their IT department focus on their roles through a powerful and flexible platform,” says Irene Gorrissen, Business Development & Technical Sales Manager for Africa.

Further, Kristen terms the deployment of this product as timely, coming at a post-pandemic period when most organisations have automated their operations. “We would like to see the change of the wait and see a scenario where IT practitioners would wait for some downtime to be alerted of any problems in the system by organizations automating their monitoring techniques,” says Simon Otieno, COO Kristel.

Among the expected early adopters of the project in the financial sector include banks, SACCOs, and deposit-taking microfinance institutions especially those operating mobile applications to extend services to customers.