The ESET PROTECT Launch Brings 24/7 Monitoring, AI Security, and a Cyber Warranty to Small and Midsize Businesses | A Brand Story Conversation with Ryan Grant, Country Manager & GM, North America at ESET | Hosted by Sean Martin

Ryan Grant, Country Manager & GM, North America at ESET, joins ITSPmagazine to discuss the launch of ESET PROTECT, announced September 30, 2026, a platform that brings 24/7 monitoring, AI security, and a cyber warranty to small and midsize businesses. Ryan Grant says the design came from feedback from ESET clients and partners, along with a survey of 2,000 SMB customers. About 70% of those customers had some sort of antivirus tool, and less than half had tools such as multi-factor authentication, EDR, monitoring, or email security.

What does ESET PROTECT include? Ryan Grant describes an out-of-the-box cybersecurity-as-a-service offering built natively into one platform, combining AI-led security, advanced endpoint protection, EDR, 24/7 AI monitoring with human oversight, Microsoft and Google environment coverage, premium support, and a cyber warranty. It comes in three packages: Core, Premium, and Ultimate.

Core includes the latest security protocols with AI, next-gen endpoint, server, and mobile protection, and management of Google and Microsoft environments. Premium adds EDR, 24/7 monitoring from the ESET SOC, the cyber warranty, and premium support. Ultimate adds a dedicated SOC analyst for the business.

How does ESET PROTECT reach organizations with 10 seats? Ryan Grant says platforms with this level of security and services typically serve 500 or 600 seats in most cases, and ESET took this one down to 10 seats because SMBs are where ESET's data shows most breaches happening. In the launch announcement, Ryan Grant says managed detection and response used to be built for big enterprises with big budgets.

Many organizations cannot find or afford security talent, Ryan Grant says, which is why he calls 24/7 monitoring the most critical piece. Partners told Ryan Grant they wake up to notifications about incidents ESET contained in the middle of the night, along with recommendations for what comes next.

Ryan Grant says cyber insurance takes a significant set of basics, including multi-factor authentication, a remediation plan, training, and EDR, which typically traces back to a NIST or CIS type framework. The cyber warranty wraps around the ESET offering, ESET's partnership with Cysurance is part of the launch, and customers who meet the requirements can also go get a policy.

How should organizations approach AI tools and agents? Ryan Grant says to extend the existing cyber practice into AI tools, with governance, access control, a repository of approved tools, and attention to where data sits. He treats an AI tool like another employee with access to the infrastructure, and h