3SG: network security, simplified.

• Position: Business Profile - Advertisement

3SG came to life in March of 2001. Justin Burgess had the idea of delivering managed security services to the small and mid-sized market segment. In the fall of 2001, Burgess recruited Brian Evans to head up marketing and sales. Together they sat down and put together a business plan, which gave birth to one of the most successful Internet and network security services in the state.

Since then, Jack Campbell has joined the Anchorage-based partnership as general manager. The company also has grown from 25 customers to more than 200; their clients are spread from Washington, D.C., to California, to Canada and, of course, Alaska.

POSITIVE GROWTH PATTERN

"3SG has done exceptionally well," said Evans, vice president for sales and marketing. "For the past few years we've grown by triple digits and we expect the same this year."

In 2005, the company hired six new employees and plans to do the same next year, according to Evans. He also said that this year they expect to finish with gross sales just under $2 million.

The heart of the company's business is its managed and monitored firewall service. Each customer has an in-house device (firewall), which connects to monitoring equipment at 3SG's network operations center. That equipment communicates back and forth on a 24-hour basis. The firewall acts like an Internet cop, monitoring all the activity and data coming and going to and from the Internet.

REPORT TO THE CLIENTS

Technicians at 3SG use that information to graph and correlate the activity and produce a report for the business owner. At that point, he can tell where his employees go on the Internet, how long they spend there, their e-mail usage and the kind of data transfer that is needed.

"I think it's important for CFOs to hear our message," said Evans. "A lot of the time IT departments don't generate revenue, so it's difficult to convince a financial director to spend more money. CFOs don't realize the need for security until it's too late."

ADDITIONAL SERVICES

He...