It’s not easy for MSPs and resellers to do cybersecurity well – not when the market is overflowing with new technology that requires specialist skills to manage and position to customers.
But two young businesses are looking to simplify that task for the channel. Sydney-based cybersecurity and analytics value-added distributor Orca Tech and MSSP Brace 168 have teamed up to provide MSPs and resellers with cutting-edge cybersecurity and manage it for them.
They’re positioning this as a nimbler arrangement than the way MSPs and resellers typically go to market – and one that’s better suited to fast-evolving cybersecurity challenges.
Filling the technology, skills gap
Orca Tech’s founders formed the business three years ago, after they saw resellers and MSPs had two common cybersecurity problems: a lack of agile distributors to quickly fill customers’ technology gaps, and a lack of relevant technical skills.
They’re tackling the technology issue by providing products from big names like Check Point Software Technologies and FireEye, as well as up-and-coming security-focused vendors such as ExtraHop, vArmour, Pcysys and Bitglass.
The distributor prides itself on providing personalised service to vendors large and small. “If you're a vendor that generates under $10 million a year in revenue in Australia, it’s very difficult to gain any focus from the big names,” says Orca Tech General Manager Craig Ashwood.
Orca Tech is also solving the skills problem for MSPs and resellers. It can provide presales and professional services on a non-competitive basis. MSPs, resellers and system integrators can white label those services or use them to augment their existing technical teams.
And they can go to Orca Tech for someone to manage and monitor cybersecurity products – which is where Brace 168 comes in. The ISO27001-certified MSSP provides advanced cybersecurity managed services, including infrastructure services and ongoing management, through to advanced threat hunting services and SLA-driven incident response.
The kicker is that Brace 168 goes to market via MSPs and resellers, making it an ideal match for Orca Tech, and simplifying life for MSPs and resellers that don’t have a security practice. They can get everything they need to sell and operate cutting edge cybersecurity from Orca Tech – and earn a share of the services or consumption revenue.
“We’re giving resellers and MSPs the capability to easily deliver security to their customers, when they couldn't do that before, opening opportunities to provide a full end-to-end managed services portfolio,” he says.
Beyond resale
Brace 168 Founder Matt Miller argues that simply reselling cybersecurity is no longer a successful strategy. ”A lot of the technology that Orca Tech is bringing to market can be sold as either resale or in some cases it’s a better fit as an on-going managed service.” Miller says.
“Sometimes with these types of products, you can’t just throw it over the fence and say ‘There you go, I hope that fixes your problem’. If it’s not configured correctly the outputs won’t be valid. And if you don’t remediate issues then customers are no better off – you will end up with angry customers and disillusioned partners,” Miller says.
Customers are doing something about that, says Miller. They include a multinational finance company that turned to Brace 168 to manage the Next-Gen Cloud Access Security Broker Bitglass (which Orca Tech supplies). The partnership is helping to address regulatory compliance challenges for the customer in three countries and jurisdictions.
Ashwood encourages MSPs and resellers to consider whether their partners can move quickly to address these issues. How quickly do their distributors quote, for example? “When you deal with us you don't just go into a quotes team and wait a couple of days. All our sales people are responsive and own the relationship with their partners,” he says.
Miller says that’s ideal for his business: “The landscape changes so quickly. Keeping an eye on new, exciting vendors to fill gaps, with a delivery mechanism that gets to those gaps as quickly as you can, is what it's all about.“
“We can both change direction quickly. That’s what’s needed in the market now.”
Greg Brunt presented this case study at Channel Academy, a new educational event series presented by CRN. Greg spoke at the invitation of Channel Academy sponsor Orca Tech.
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