It’s not just about big companies – SMEs are key to the game
WindTre brings cybersecurity to SMEs in partnership with Rad: round-the-clock monitoring, response to attacks and enhanced expertise, with expansion into Ireland, Denmark and Austria
From 30 employees at the time of the acquisition to a target of 100 staff by the end of the year. Rad’s growth reflects Wind Tre’s commitment to cybersecurity, encompassing services for small and medium-sized enterprises and expansion abroad.
It is around the company, in which it acquired a 70 per cent stake in 2023, that the operator – owned by the Hong Kong conglomerate CK Hutchison – is building its cyber security presence. Another step is in the pipeline: increasing its stake to 100 per cent. “It’s a work in progress; it was actually due to happen in June,” says Antonio Forzieri, Cybersecurity Strategy Director at Wind Tre.
The business strategy is, however, clear: to bring the services developed for larger clients to even the smallest businesses, making cyber security an in-house function. Prior to April 2023, the telecoms company purchased services from suppliers and resold them through a network of partners. Joining Rad has changed the model: in-house expertise, a structure to be developed, and a range of services to be extended across the entire business customer base.
Founded in March 2018, with Andrea Andrenacci still serving as chief executive, Rad entered the deal with operations across four continents and ten countries, primarily in Europe and the Middle East. A security boutique now called upon to operate on a different scale. Growth is also coming from abroad. Operations in Ireland began about a month ago, reports Forzieri, and ‘Denmark and Austria will follow’. The outlook also encompasses both the consumer and wholesale markets. Demand from businesses is strong, driven by security risks and regulatory obligations, but competition is intensifying. For a telecoms company, the key lies in ensuring business continuity for its customers: “We need to offer connectivity, but also security and the ability to resume operations in the face of a potential problem.”
The commercial testbed now, however, is SMEs. The process began with top-tier clients, then moved on to large and medium-sized enterprises, and finally reached organisations with fewer than 250 users. The aim is to maintain top-tier technology in this sector too: ‘Just because we provide this service to small and medium-sized enterprises doesn’t mean it’s a second-rate service.’ The point is to make security accessible that requires specialists and continuous monitoring – something that is difficult to achieve within a small company.
