Fortinet Vet Geoff Kreiling Departs for Deep Instinct

Fortinet has lost another channel vet. This time it’s Geoff Kreiling, who will lead Deep Instinct partners as vice president of MSSP and channel.

Kreiling was with Fortinet for more than seven years, and most recently was director of MSSP and service enablement. Stephan Tallent, previously Fortinet’s senior director of MSSP and service enablement, also left the company this month. He’s now Cybereason’s vice president of MSSPs for North America.

Deep Instinct applies end-to-end deep learning to predict, identify and prevent cyberattacks. The cybersecurity vendor’s customers span a range of different industries including finance, education, retail and technology.

Before joining Fortinet, Kreiling was PEG Bandwidth’s director of product management, and Masergy‘s product development manager.

In a Q&A with Channel Futures, Kreiling talks about what Deep Instinct’s partners can expect from him.

Channel Futures: Why did you want to take this role with Deep Instinct?

Deep Instinct’s Geoff Kreiling

Geoff Kreiling: Deep Instinct is the first and only company applying end-to-end deep learning to cybersecurity to detect attacks in milliseconds and prevent them from causing harm. Deep learning is inspired by the brain’s ability to learn. Once a brain learns to identify an object, its identification becomes second nature. Similarly, Deep Instinct’s … prediction capabilities become instinctive. This amazing technology has allowed us to gain traction in the market. And we’re just getting started.

CF: What will be your responsibilities?

GK: I’ll be responsible for both our MSSP and channel routes to market. As we continue to sell into both the SMB and enterprise, we will need a variety of partners to help fulfill these deals. Some large enterprises have the staff to implement and manage our technology so they will prefer a traditional resale model. Other customers are already using an MSSP. So adding our technology to their solution stack will allow our MSSP partners to differentiate themselves from those offering a legacy EDR offering. My team will also help MSPs looking to add a security offering and help them pivot into an MSSP.

CP: What’s at the top of your to-do list?

GK: My first priority is getting out and talking to our current partners to better understand what’s working, what isn’t, and discover how we can help them build out their offering, put a service wrapper around our technology, and create high-margin service offerings. I also plan to build out our partner program into an engine that provides all Deep Instinct partners, no matter their business model, a platform for marketing, sales and incentives that allow them to fold Deep Instinct into their portfolio. This adds enormous value to our joint customers. And it does so in a way that allows them to build high-margin service offerings.

CF: How will your previous experience come into play in this new role?

GK: I have been fortunate to work at several great companies and learn from the best minds in the MSP, MSSP and the channel. That experience, guidance and mentorship – as well as my roles in working with partners of all shapes, sizes, and delivery models – truly allows me to understand what our partners need in terms of value, service creation and sales enablement. I look forward to bringing all that I have learned to Deep Instinct.

CF: What do you hope to accomplish in this new role?

GK: I want to see a Deep Instinct brain protecting every device around the globe. I want every single partner and MSSP to be confident that they are part of one of the best partner programs in the industry. And I also want to use what I’ve learned from my previous leaders and mentors to continue to build out the phenomenal winning culture that I have already witnessed here at Deep Instinct.