Big Funding Round Helps CrowdStrike Grow Channel Business

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Cybersecurity vendor CrowdStrike‘s channel operations and partner community are growing rapidly after a financing round of more than $200 million.

The SaaS endpoint protection provider continues to evolve its Elevate Partner Program with new categories in MSSP, cloud-workload procurements, and OEM and embedded partnerships. It’s partner-sourced business is up 375 percent; the company now has nearly 400 active partners.

In addition, CrowdStrike has seen a 370 percent increase in deal registration and a 477 percent compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of partner-driven closed business.

CrowdStrike’s Matthew Polly

Matthew Polly, CrowdStrike’s vice president of worldwide business development and channels, tells Channel Partners that what’s providing the “most fuel to (the company’s) channel operations and partner ecosystem is success.”

“Our partners are seeing CrowdStrike’s success and feeling that success in their own quarterly results,” he said. “Momentum in the market is a powerful thing.”

CrowdStrike has a partner advisory board that has provided “exceptional input” into the company’s program and the way it engages with partners, Polly said.

“It’s helping us define new ways to engage with MSSPs, OEMs, and providing valuable input on enablement mechanisms and content,” he said. “We are laser-focused on ensuring partners know how to implement and be successful with CrowdStrike, and that means we have to get the right education to the right people where and when they need it.”

CrowdStrike also has expanded its relationship with Dragos, launching a joint incident response (IR) retainer offering.

“CrowdStrike’s new (offering) with Dragos is designed to provide partners with a one-stop shop for quickly and effectively responding to and preventing threats targeting both endpoints and industrial control systems,” Polly said. “These new offerings have been created to specifically meet the needs of IT and operational teams [that] are responsible for protecting critical organizational systems and infrastructure.”

Today, CrowdStrike has more than 50 integrations with strategic technology alliances. The company plans to continue to build customer momentum and rapidly develop its partner community to meet demand for its endpoint-protection technology, intelligence and services.

The company also will continue to expand its international footprint, investing in partnerships and alliances in critical regions such as the United Kingdom, Germany, Benelux, India, Singapore and Japan.

“We chose to partner with CrowdStrike because they have pioneered the power of the cloud to protect against the modern-day threat landscape,” said Kevin Clarke, BT Security‘s director of channel, desk and global vendor management. “Our partnership continues to evolve with CrowdStrike’s next-generation solution aligning seamlessly with BT’s commitment to offer the most effective and reliable solutions to its customers. As such, this strategic partnership of both industry-leading technology and comprehensive services will help customers be more resilient in the face of growing cyber threats.”