CrowdStrike accelerates SMB cybersecurity transformation across JAPAC

Partners will be able to onboard MSSPs at scale through distributors and deliver managed security services, which include AI-powered protection to SMBs.

With organizations in the Asia Pacific region opting to work with Managed Security Service Providers (MSSPs) in cybersecurity, CrowdStrike has expanded its MSSP go-to-market strategy in the region. This expansion includes increasing access to the CrowdStrike Falcon platform for SMBs, which is becoming an increasingly targeted market by cybercriminals as well.

The expanded strategic partnership with regional distributor partners like Dicker Data and Otsuka Corporation, will see partners be able to onboard MSSPs at scale and deliver managed security services, which include AI-powered protection to SMBs.

According to Daniel Bernard, Chief Business Officer in CrowdStrike, three years ago, CrowdStrike’s MSSP business was just under US$100 million and today it is over US$1.3 billion.

“We're seeing massive adoption, growth, and relevance of our platform approach in the MSP market because these partners historically had to sell subpar point products that weren't succeeding anywhere else in the market. Now, they have the flagship technology that's winning at the Fortune 500, Global 2000, and they're able to bring that technology to market in a way that's convenient for them, profitable for them, and effective for them,” Bernard said.

What excites him is partners can provide this to customers of any size, be it a small 15-person shop to a 500-person small enterprise or a large business.

“They get to use the same technology that everybody's heard of that is leading in all the Gartner Magic Quadrants that customers want, and they get to use that technology. I think when you give partners what they want, they do great work. When you give the market what they want, you get great sales results,” he added.

Jon Fox, Vice President of Channels and Alliances, CrowdStrike Japan and Asia Pacific shared that the adversaries don't care whether if it’s an SMB or a large enterprise.

“If you're in that supply chain, you're going to be targeted. Unfortunately, the SMBs don't have the luxury of typically having CISOs and having lots of security people on staff, and so MSSPs become critical to their business and their survival. We want to enable our MSSPs to take the best-in-class security platform from. MSPs is a critical area of the market for us to continue to scale our business down into SMB, give us the reach, and enable us to secure more customers,” Fox said.

Biggest cybersecurity party for GSIs to smaller partners

An IDC Business Value study revealed that organizations that standardized on the CrowdStrike Falcon platform achieved up to 441% return on investment over three years, with payback in just four months.

This is why Bernard believes that global system integrators (GSIs) that are working with the larger enterprises are having sizable growing practices with the Falcon platform.

“What brought them to the table was two things. One is our Next-Gen SIEM and that SOC migration opportunity and the other is the licensing model of Falcon Flex, where it's a commitment-based. Today we have over 1,600 customers who adopted the model, about 1.7 billion in Flex sold just in about two years. And what we're seeing now is not only the growth of the Flex business, but also the number of customers that are re-Flexing. They've already used and hit their commitments and they're adopting more of the platform,” said Bernard.

Bernard pointed out that this is a very relevant model for GSIs as it keeps them engaged across all these different lines of business all within Falcon.

“So GSIs are critical to large enterprise, but then we get that aggregation for MSSPs through the likes of Redington, Westcon-Comstor, Pax8 and Dicker Data. We're working with all of them to make sure that we can leverage their scale and reach their MSPs out to the customers in SMB and up into mid-market. We're so ripe for ecosystem-based growth because we have the relevance from a technology perspective. We have the scale and we have the demand, which creates a flywheel. And how we can proliferate our growth and keep the growth rates where we want them is by going and getting that next 10,000, 20,000 set of partners,” he added.

What’s also interesting is that customers know what CrowdStrike is doing and are ready to work with the partners. This he believes makes the opportunity more exciting which is why Bernard see’s CrowdStrike as “the biggest party in cybersecurity.”

What partners say

With partners capable of generating up to US$7 in services revenue for every US$1 of Falcon platform sales, both Bernard and Fox also shared that CrowdStrike’s distributor-led model enables select distributors to recruit and activate MSSPs across JAPAC, with flexible billing through distributor marketplaces. This approach allows MSSPs to quickly build and deliver tailored offerings, expanding access to enterprise-grade security and meeting growing regional demand from SMBs.

For Vlad Mitnovetski, executive director and chief operating officer of Dicker Data, cybersecurity continues to be a key growth driver for the ICT channel, with many SMBs needing access to additional capabilities to defend against modern threats.

"Together with CrowdStrike, we’re enabling MSSPs to deliver AI-powered protection that helps businesses strengthen security and reduce complexity in an increasingly challenging threat landscape,” Mitnovetski said.

Yoshihiro Tokura, Managing Corporate Officer, Otsuka Corporation stated that Otsuka Corporation welcomes CrowdStrike’s MSSP go-to-market expansion across the region to provide customers with security services that deliver real value.

“Through our partnership with CrowdStrike, we are enabling SMBs to seamlessly strengthen their security with our Rakuraku EDR Premier service, which combines the Falcon platform with SOC support services from our Tayoreru Security Operation Center. By delivering the AI-powered protection required to defend against today’s cyber threats, together we are helping SMBs focus on growing their businesses,” Tokura said.

As Bernard puts it, the message to partners is simple. Any partner that invests the time and resources in building out a CrowdStrike business is going to be a winner.

“I want partners to know that they have the potential to win, and their potential to win is only limited by one thing, themselves, their ability to envision the success. We live in a time when if you can come up with a great idea, you can do that idea. And we're listening. We're not just talking and saying, go double your business. We're listening to what their pain points are and how we can help them. Because when we help them, they help us. When they win, we win,” he concluded.