NTT Security links arms with Cylance in EMEA drive
Cylance's EMEA partner programme is set to go live at the end of the month
NTT Security has added artificial intelligence end-point security vendor Cylance to its EMEA vendor line-up.
Cylance launched in EMEA in March, and is distributed in the UK by Ignition Technology, with its official partner programme set to go live at the end of this month.
Peter Cunningham, SVP for northern Europe at NTT, told CRN that he sees Cylance as the market leader when it comes to next-generation end-point security, but he anticipates that other security vendors will follow Cylance's lead.
"I would expect to see in the market that more end-point security vendors will be adopting a similar architecture approach," he said.
"The architectural logic behind this is very strong and, as they say, imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.
"We believe that the technology, technical skills and training investments we're making in ramping up together with them make it a very natural fit, but we would also expect to see others follow suit in a similar way."
Cylance has often found itself in a war of words against more-established security vendors, including Sophos, and more recently Trend Micro took a swipe at it and other emerging vendors.
Cunningham said that while "nobody has a crystal ball", he is confident that there is more to Cylance than just hype - partly because of the team that it has assembled.
Cylance has snared senior management members from others in the security space this year including Anton Grashion from Intel Security, Stuart Quinsey from LogRhythm, and Evan Davidson from FireEye.
"When you get a situation where various well-respected managers, leaders and architectural technology thinkers all join together and all have a commitment around evolving a company - in particular in a balanced and controlled way - it's very different from companies trying to be all things to all people," Cunningham added.
"We don't think they're biting off more than they can chew. We think the focus around end-point, and not trying to do everything, is very healthy and we're confident that Cylance will be around in years to come."
Cylance's EMEA channel director Quinsey told CRN that while the scale and reach of NTT Security will be a huge benefit to the vendor, he is equally looking to partner with more boutique and local VARs and MSPs as Cylance prepares for its EMEA partner programme to go live at the end of the month.
"Each one has a significant part in the strategy and bearing on the strategy - we have to be very focused in who we bring in to each of those categories," he said.
"Obviously, NTT is an extremely important multinational security specialist for us, but then obviously some of the other types [of partners] service the market in a different way - whether they're a small MSSP that deals with small organisations that we perhaps otherwise wouldn't be able to touch through the standard partner community, through to your big systems integrators."