'7 Minutes' with Elastic Beam Global Director of Business Development Tyler Reynolds

**Editor’s Note: “7 Minutes” is a feature where we ask channel executives from startups – or companies that may be new to the Channel Partners audience – a series of quick questions about their businesses and channel programs.**

Some security startups suffer from a lack of product focus. Not Elastic Beam, which is all about securing APIs. But don’t confuse “focused” with “lacking broad appeal”: Every one of your customers consumes APIs, the gateways through which third-party developers, partners, suppliers and cloud providers interact with a site, application, cloud platform — you name it. A maniacal focus on exposing AWS data and functionality through web APIs is, arguably, what made Amazon the IaaS behemoth it is today. (We explore the role of mobility APIs for partners in this report.)

By ProgrammableWeb’s count, more than 17,000 public APIs are now available, up from about 6,000 in 2014. However, opening that access to customers and partners can also leave a gap for malicious hackers looking to steal data or disrupt services. Elastic Beam uses deep knowledge of how APIs should behave to spot anomalies and stop potential attacks. API expert and ProgrammableWeb editor in chief David Berlind offers a deep technical dive here. We spoke with the company’s global director of business development about the product lineup and why partners should get in on the ground floor.

Channel Partners: Tell us what customers love about your product or service. What’s the secret selling sauce?

Tyler Reynolds: Customers love our unique approach of applying behavioral security to their API services. They quickly see how our solution can detect complex attacks that traditional techniques could never find. They also value the in-depth reporting, which simplifies forensics analysis and compliance reporting. Our AI-powered solution can observe hundreds of thousands of simultaneous API transactions and identify – and block –- malicious connections whether from hackers with stolen credentials, botnets or rogue insiders.

Finally, our solution also delivers an API Hacker Deception environment that instantly identifies hacking attempts. Everything we do is future-proof and built to thrive in big data centers and hybrid cloud environments, at scale (the tricky part)!

CP: Describe your channel program — metal levels, heavy on certifications, open or selective, unique features?

TR: A core part of our GTM strategy is to utilize channel partners. We are quite selective of whom we work with but are keen to cultivate relationships with resellers/SIs who are hyperfocused on digital transformation and the required security. We are also working with a few global SIs.

CP: Quick-hit answers: Percentage of sales through the channel, number of partners, average margin. Go.

TR: Sixty percent, eight, 25 percent (plus all services if partner can provide them).

CP: Who are your main competitors, and what makes your offering better?

TR: Some prospective partners are initially under the mistaken impression that we compete with API gateways. Elastic Beam delivers cybersecurity protection against hacker attacks and works with …

… API gateways, which provide access control and other API services. We are actually partnering with a number of the leading API gateway vendors. To date we are first to market and have no direct competition — this was concluded by Programmable Web, 451 Research and Gartner.

CP: How do you think your technology portfolio will change in the next three years?

TR: Everything we do also applies to the security of IoT infrastructures. We can handle today MQTT [Message Queuing Telemetry Transport] traffic in a multiple cloud environment at massive scale and expect to be doing a lot more in that space in the near future.

CP: How do you expect your channel strategy to evolve over that time frame?

TR: We believe that our channel strategy might incorporate carefully selected specialized distributors in the future while staying true to our reseller partners, which will always be core to our overall success.

CP: What didn’t we ask that partners should know?

TR: We play in five of the hottest spaces: AI, IoT, APIs, digital transformation and cybersecurity. Because we are first to market, it gives our partners the ability to craft a unique story about the future of API security and digital transformation. Fun fact: Since our launch, we have received inbound leads from some of the world’s largest telcos and international banks as well as from household names in the consumer and DoD verticals.

Partners interested in joining the program should contact Reynolds.