Australian channel lacks innovation says security vendor exec

Australian channel partners are not innovative, are slow to consider new technology and instead rely on know-to-be-ineffective security products that make them money but don't protect customers.

So says Stuart Fisher, senior vice president for Asia-Pacific of Israeli security vendor Deep Instinct, who told CRN that system integrators and resellers can be “pretty well set in their way” with their existing security vendor relationships, while living on license sales that offer shrinking margins.

“Innovation is something that has proven to be very difficult for the channel to do — to identify new technology, bring in new technology, sell the value proposition to the customer base,” Fisher said.

“You see many [cyber security] breaches happening on a daily basis with existing customers, who typically are sitting back and saying, ‘We’ve got the best of McAfee, Symantec and Sophos so we’re covered’. But guess what, they’re the one getting all the breaches.”

Israel-based Deep Instinct uses deep learning to prevent cyber security threats, using a proprietary neural network inspired by the human brain’s ability to learn, to scan datasets and protect against threats.

“Our technology is not perfect, but prevention is still always better than the cure,” Fisher said. “If you already have a name for the attack vector, then it’s too late.”

Despite his claims of technical superiority, Fisher said finding appropriate partners remains challenging . “Australia is not an innovative market, it’s not a market that is ahead of the curve on technology adoption, compared to other markets,” he said.

Fisher said his experience in Southeast Asia was that partners are usually more receptive when they see that the technology works.

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“If you go to some of the big [resellers], they move too slow and they are only interested in big brands with immediate revenue. If it’s a Cisco or a Palo Alto, [they] can make money from that,” Fisher said.

“Which is why we’re seeing innovative partners coming into the market, like ex-CEOs of telcos."

Deep Instinct launched in Australia in late 2017 as part of its expansion into Asia-Pacific, and has since won 20 enterprise customers in the region and secured 100 managed service providers as partners.

Tech Data is the company’s sole distributor in Australia, after a deal was struck in April 2018.