The Gately Report: CP Expo Edition with Trellix's Kristi Houssiere, Cybersecurity Peer Group, More
Trellix needs its partners now more than ever.
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Channel Futures: Let’s talk about your responsibilities in this role. Are they similar to your previous role with FireEye?
Trellix’s Kristi Houssiere: This is like deja vu for me because originally I was at McAfee way back when. I started back in McAfee and worked on the channel program there, the global partner program. My new position, I ran the national channel for FireEye and then I was tapped to do global partner program development for Trellix. So my focus and path forward is creating an aggressive go-to-market (GTM) strategy around XDR, our sweet spot in our portfolio, as well as driving predictable profitability for our partners and supporting them along the way so they can be the superheroes of our mutual customers and we can spotlight their value-add. So that’s what my my job is today, to develop the global partner program for Trellix.
CF: What does Trellix’s channel strategy encompass? Does it differ from FireEye and McAfee Enterprise?
KH: FireEye and McAfee had a very longstanding history. As with anything with history, it expands out, and has tendrils and starts getting customized and very specific. So our approach now as Trellix is kind of getting our arms around it, and so you’ll see best-of-breed. Obviously we’re trying to focus on the best practices for the channel, making sure they’re making money, that they are selling what’s in demand. We are enabling and supporting them. So you’ll see … us building a new cybersecurity practice leading with our partners going forward.
CF: Is there already a combined partner program in place or is there going to be an integrated partner program that’s going to be forthcoming?
KH: Yes and yes. We are committed to doing no harm, establishing business as usual, no disruption for our partners to keep them clipping along because they’re doing very well and we don’t want to disrupt that. So today, that’s what it is. In the future, we are going to be coming out with a united, under trial, expanded global partner program. And we will be positioning some of that in our upcoming Xpand Digital conference, which is in North America on April 27. So our leaders and our executives have channel on the brain completely, and they’ll be highlighting some of that in April at our conference.
We’re going to keep our partners completely informed. We’ll be very patient with them as to what we’re planning on doing. But there will be some information coming out from Xpand until the second half of the year.
CF: Does Trellix have operations, partners and/or customers in Ukraine? If so, what is Trellix doing to support them?
KH: It’s unfortunate and our CEO all the way down have continually reached out to the employees, both here and in Europe, to make sure that everyone is safe. And we have halted sales in Russia and we are supporting Ukraine both corporately in how we can with technology, but also locally as our teams in EMEA have helped with fundraising there locally as well. We will continue to follow what escalates and follow government directives. And we will continue to input the protections that we need to in our products as more cyber threats come out and as we anticipate, as well as communicate with our customers and our partners on what’s happening there and what we know.
CF: What do you find most worrisome about the current threat landscape?
KH: Ransomware is quite worrisome. But we just came out with a new research report, and what we highlighted in there is about nation-state threats. And I would say that is particularly worrisome, especially on critical infrastructure … and the line is sort of blurring between nation-state actors and cybercriminals. There are often a lot of times where nation-state actors or the employees are working off hours as cybercrime groups. So that line is sort of blurring. And [the attacks] are definitely more and more sophisticated.
The report highlights some of the stats that we found after interviewing and surveying over 800 security professionals around the world. And it highlights the need for more government help. It highlights … companies feeling maybe a little bit more capable and competent than they actually are in mitigating the risks and threats around nation-state actors.
CF: Are there things partners have gained from McAfee Enterprise and FireEye coming together as Trellix?
KH: Our partners can continue to sign up for threat intelligence, which wasn’t something that we just gave away when we had it before. So they can sign up for our threat intelligence for free, which is nice because the more informed they are, the more informed they can be with their customers, which is really important. So that’s something that I think our partners have found really helpful under Trellix.
In addition, we are trying to formulate a new way of looking at cybersecurity, thinking about security as having deeper investigation and response detection. And with that knowledge being more resilient and that whole pivot. It may seem like a very minimal shift, but it is actually pretty huge because a lot of the cybersecurity companies that our partners work with, they’re talking about doom and gloom, and fear, uncertainty and doubt. It’s going to take you down and take you out, and you’re never going to be able to recover. And I don’t think that’s the security that we need going forward.
Our message of resiliency and learning from the threats that we know about and moving forward has resonated with our partners more than ever because they’re sort of tired of this fear, uncertainty and doubt. They know they’re living and breathing it every day. So when a vendor comes in and says, “Oh, tell them this and make them fearful of that,” it doesn’t work. And the partners and customers are saying, “Help me out, give me a hand up.” And that’s what we’re trying to do now.
CF: What are your goals for Trellix’s channel in 2022?
KH: A best-in-class, unified global partner program, focusing on an aggressive GTM strategy with XDR, making sure that our partners have ample opportunity to present their services and their value-added benefits to their customers together. So it’s the better together story. We need our partners more than ever. We want to arm them with the technology that they can use to drive services because we know that our partners really want to position themselves and their services with our customers, and we want to make sure that we can do that as well.
Gurucul was among the cybersecurity exhibitors in the expo hall. The company pioneered behavioral analytics 11 years ago and it provides a security operations center (SOC) platform that includes multiple products, such as security information and event management (SIEM), user and entity behavior analytics (UEBA), security orchestration, automation and response (SOAR) and network traffic analysis. (NTA).
“We are moving toward the channel and a channel model, looking to accelerate our revenue course, and seeing channel as a force multiplier,” a spokesperson said. “And we’re here to engage MSPs and VARs. We absolutely have gotten interest.”
Keeper Security also was on hand in the expo Hhll. The company is an encrypted password vault, which is a safe place to store passwords and ensure password best practices among administrators.
John McDonald is channel account executive with Keeper Security.
“We have traditionally done a lot of direct business with some channel and our focus recently has been wanting to run as much as possible through the channel, levering those partnerships, working smarter, not harder, and leveraging the longstanding partnerships that our channel has rather than trying to blaze the trail alone,” he said. “And that’s why it’s such an important conference and we’ll be doing some other ones as well.”
Morphisec was an exhibitor and came to CP Expo for brand recognition and to attract MSPs, MSSPs and VARs. It provides an added layer to an EDR solution and antivirus, SOC or MDR.
Will Pope is manager of channel sales at Morphisec.
“The majority of companies that are getting breached are breached from threats that your EDR tool can’t detect because they don’t know about it,” he said. “So for a partner, this brings a unique value-add because organizations are starting to look at how they can add layers, and it’s a pure, added-on expansion play for a partner because we’re not trying to replace anything. We’re just trying to be a layer-on. So it brings value-add to the partner because they’re bringing something to their customers that they need. We’re also helping them reduce their customers’ costs because they don’t have to focus so much of their cost on doing remediation or sifting through alerts. They’re doing a lot of that work for them.”
AppGate provides zero trust network access (ZTNA). It helps partners help their customers ensure that only the right people get access to the right things on the network and keep the bad guys out.
Tamara Prazak is AppGate’s national channel director.
“We’re so excited to be at the show; we are seeing an uptick in customer demand and partner demand because customers are asking about and are concerned about security, so asking for zero-trust solutions,” she said. “It’s really driven by customer and partner demand. It’s been good, definitely having a lot of connections and partners that want to get into security. They want to build a security acumen and they’re interested in how they do it. They’re interested in education and enablement, and how to make it happen, and we’re here to do that.”
BlueShift Cybersecurity, also an exhibitor, last week announced a $6 million seed funding round from leading investors, including WestWave Capital and CyberJunction. Blueshift will use the seed capital to expand sales, marketing and channel development efforts, invest further in R&D and operations, and build out its management team.
Stephen Nicol is Blueshift’s senior vice president of sales and marketing.
“Blueshift Cybersecurity is a managed XDR platform and we focus on providing enterprise-grade security to SMBs at a really affordable price,” he said. “We offer channel partners the opportunity to be either a reseller or a referral partner, where they act on behalf of us as an agent. We’re 100%channel. We’re a young company, so people don’t know who we are. But we’re increasingly growing our business and have had really rapid growth. This is the first time we’ve ventured outside of RSA.”
Telesystem, also an exhibitor, offers managed security, managed firewall, distributed denial of service (DDoS) protection and security certificaitons.
Summer Hill is Telesystem’s regional channel manager.
“We have relationships with all of the TSBs,” she said. “So it’s really whatever their niche is and wherever they fit. We’re SMB-to-enterprise. I know a lot of partners that have relationships with different TSBs, and we’re able to work with all of them.”
Also at the Channel Partners Conference & Expo, cybersecurity professionals expressed interest in forming a new Cybersecurity Peer Group. The purpose of the group will be establishing a network where security partners can talk about what’s on their mind in a vendor-free, closed-door session.
Rory Sanchez, president, and Sam Ruggeri, executive vice president of Cerberus Cyber Sentinel, moderated an introductory session polling attendees on what they’d like to see from a peer group.
They presented three scenarios:
Casual — where attendees meet at Channel Partners events, with minimal criteria to join and minimal commitments, and collaborating ahead of time on content, with low or no cost.
Medium — Maybe meet ahead of time and for an entire day with committed attendance. Group members feel a responsibility to be there and best practices are shared. No financials are needed to join and there’s no financial sharing. Various topics would be tackled and subject matter experts could give presentations. And there’s no homework.
Serious — It’s not in conjunction with any conference, there’s committed attendance, members have to qualify and it’s serious business. Quarterly financials are turned in, analyzed and reviewed with one member’s financials in the hot seat per meeting.
A number of attendees expressed more interest in medium or serious scenarios for the group.
“So we’re trying to create the framework, and the next step we’re going to take is we’re going to look at the data, we’re going to poll the audience and we’re going to see if we have another session, probably piggyback with the next (Channel Partners) conference,” Ruggeri said.
Jason Rincker is sales director at New Charter Technologies. He’s all for bringing the channel together on the topic of cybersecurity.
“Obviously it’s the hottest topic out there,” he said. “And to share best practices in some areas that maybe we can all improve in, it’s phenomenal. I wholeheartedly support this. Being part of New Charter Technologies, we have 18 other MSPs, and so me being part of it, I would like to bring what we’re doing there to share in those best practices. But also most importantly is to learn and listen from the peers so we can all grow together.”
Rincker is interested in including learning opportunities in the group.
“The more education we can get, what challenges we’re all facing, maybe we can help each other,” he said. “I’d really like to make sure the primary focus is cybersecurity and the compliance piece.”
Ryan Draayer is CEO of Hyper Networks. He said he’s a member of other peer groups, but has never been part of the inception.
“I would love to be part of it,” he said. “Some of the best practices that we have, some of the greatest advantages that we’ve picked up have been from peer groups that have been there before us, and tell us how they’re doing and what they’re doing. They share those, they take an interest in our business, they ask you two months later, ‘Hey, what did you do about that troublesome customer? What did you do about that problematic vendor? How did you solve that, and present to the group what you did?’ To me, this is far more valuable. And I think there’s a vehicle for having a space for it by people who are interested in presenting to groups that are serious. The investment by the individuals in the group has to be there for it to be valuable.”
Draayer said “no question” he’s interested in the serious option for the group.
“I love truth, and when you open the (financials) and say. ‘We made this much selling this product last year, our salespeople are hitting these numbers on average monthly,’ it does two things,” he said. “It validates your experience, ‘Hey, we’re doing the right things,’ or it gives you opportunities for improvement and growth. So you can go to them and ask, ‘How are you selling managed detection and response (MDR)? How is this the largest line item in your new product sales? Tell me what you’re doing and please share that.’ As long as they’re here to help me and I’m here to help them. The other thing that comes out of these groups so often is, ‘We have large enterprise customers headquartered in Las Vegas that need to get stuff done in Des Moines.’ You have resources where, ‘Hey, I have a guy who can help you in Des Moines, I have a data center route that will take care of a refresh without having to fly my guys out.'”
Also at the Channel Partners Conference & Expo, cybersecurity professionals expressed interest in forming a new Cybersecurity Peer Group. The purpose of the group will be establishing a network where security partners can talk about what’s on their mind in a vendor-free, closed-door session.
Rory Sanchez, president, and Sam Ruggeri, executive vice president of Cerberus Cyber Sentinel, moderated an introductory session polling attendees on what they’d like to see from a peer group.
They presented three scenarios:
Casual — where attendees meet at Channel Partners events, with minimal criteria to join and minimal commitments, and collaborating ahead of time on content, with low or no cost.
Medium — Maybe meet ahead of time and for an entire day with committed attendance. Group members feel a responsibility to be there and best practices are shared. No financials are needed to join and there’s no financial sharing. Various topics would be tackled and subject matter experts could give presentations. And there’s no homework.
Serious — It’s not in conjunction with any conference, there’s committed attendance, members have to qualify and it’s serious business. Quarterly financials are turned in, analyzed and reviewed with one member’s financials in the hot seat per meeting.
A number of attendees expressed more interest in medium or serious scenarios for the group.
“So we’re trying to create the framework, and the next step we’re going to take is we’re going to look at the data, we’re going to poll the audience and we’re going to see if we have another session, probably piggyback with the next (Channel Partners) conference,” Ruggeri said.
Jason Rincker is sales director at New Charter Technologies. He’s all for bringing the channel together on the topic of cybersecurity.
“Obviously it’s the hottest topic out there,” he said. “And to share best practices in some areas that maybe we can all improve in, it’s phenomenal. I wholeheartedly support this. Being part of New Charter Technologies, we have 18 other MSPs, and so me being part of it, I would like to bring what we’re doing there to share in those best practices. But also most importantly is to learn and listen from the peers so we can all grow together.”
Rincker is interested in including learning opportunities in the group.
“The more education we can get, what challenges we’re all facing, maybe we can help each other,” he said. “I’d really like to make sure the primary focus is cybersecurity and the compliance piece.”
Ryan Draayer is CEO of Hyper Networks. He said he’s a member of other peer groups, but has never been part of the inception.
“I would love to be part of it,” he said. “Some of the best practices that we have, some of the greatest advantages that we’ve picked up have been from peer groups that have been there before us, and tell us how they’re doing and what they’re doing. They share those, they take an interest in our business, they ask you two months later, ‘Hey, what did you do about that troublesome customer? What did you do about that problematic vendor? How did you solve that, and present to the group what you did?’ To me, this is far more valuable. And I think there’s a vehicle for having a space for it by people who are interested in presenting to groups that are serious. The investment by the individuals in the group has to be there for it to be valuable.”
Draayer said “no question” he’s interested in the serious option for the group.
“I love truth, and when you open the (financials) and say. ‘We made this much selling this product last year, our salespeople are hitting these numbers on average monthly,’ it does two things,” he said. “It validates your experience, ‘Hey, we’re doing the right things,’ or it gives you opportunities for improvement and growth. So you can go to them and ask, ‘How are you selling managed detection and response (MDR)? How is this the largest line item in your new product sales? Tell me what you’re doing and please share that.’ As long as they’re here to help me and I’m here to help them. The other thing that comes out of these groups so often is, ‘We have large enterprise customers headquartered in Las Vegas that need to get stuff done in Des Moines.’ You have resources where, ‘Hey, I have a guy who can help you in Des Moines, I have a data center route that will take care of a refresh without having to fly my guys out.'”
Three months after its launch, Trellix, which combined McAfee Enterprise and FireEye, has resonated with partners, and a new, combined partner program will be coming later this year.
That’s according to Kristi Houssiere, Trellix’s senior director of global channel strategy and operations. Channel Futures spoke to her at last week’s Channel Partners Conference & Expo.
In January, McAfee Enterprise and FireEye emerged as a new company under the name Trellix. The company focuses on extended detection and response (XDR).
Trellix stems from the previously announced merger of McAfee Enterprise and FireEye in October. STG acquired both companies last year.
Trellix’s Kristi Houssiere
Houssiere also participated in our cybersecurity roundtable at CP Expo; we’ll have more coverage from that in the coming weeks.
Eric Parizo, principal analyst of Omdia’s cybersecurity operations intelligence service, said Trellix instantly became a $2 billion cybersecurity industry titan, with products that span the network, endpoint, cloud, security operations, data security and other areas.
Since Trellix’s launch, “business has been fantastic,” Houssiere said.
“We had a great Q1 post launch,” she said. “October and January were really exciting for the company and it resonated with our partners as well because they saw where we were taking this. They saw two formidable companies, McAfee and FireEye, coming together and they saw the vision of what we are trying to do.”
Trellix is helping its partners innovate, grow and become more resilient with the company’s overall portfolio,” Houssiere said.
“And actually at launch, we talked a little bit about … two companies coming together with relatively very complementary product portfolios, which really excites our partners,” she said. “The other thing that excites our partners is we’re not competing with them. We need our partners more than ever before to drive their services, their value add around our products. So our partners are really excited about what we’re bringing out.”
Scroll through out slideshow above for more from Houssiere and more cybersecurity news from CP Expo.
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