CrowdStrike's global channel boss on the vendor's EMEA expansion
Matthew Polly says CrowdStrike is looking to branch out from the UK and into mainland Europe
CrowdStrike is expanding rapidly across Europe with sales and channel staff in the Benelux, central Europe and Germany, but will do so without the aid of distribution.
"Our team in Frankfurt includes sales teams, technical support and channel people. And we've also put people into Central Europe and the Benelux," CrowdStrike's global channel boss Matthew Polly told CRN' s sister publication Channelnomics Europe.
"We often find that there is a real benefit in having our own resources go directly to the partners in high-consideration markets technology-wise.
"Where there is this inversion from legacy vendors to new technologies, there is a need for a lot of education to the customer about why it's different and what they need to be thinking about.
"We find that our direct sellers can do that very effectively.
"I'm not saying that distribution can't do that effectively, but I am saying we have found that we're very effective at enabling our own partners to sell and service when we engage with them in a one-tier fashion."
The one region where the end-point security vendor has chosen to embrace distribution is the Middle East and Africa.
Meanwhile, for Europe, Polly said he is still open to being wooed by local distribution players.
"If we find the right distributor in France, for example, who is willing to make the right investments that can prove to us that they can carry the weight of helping those partners make the transition from legacy to modern technologies, we might consider it," he said.
Back in January, CrowdStrike's global president Mike Carpenter said that the California-based firm had just opened an office in Paris.
Updating the situation, Polly said the France office is being used as a base to target southern European markets - Portugal, Spain and Italy.
"We've got direct salespeople in France to target southern Europe, and we've just brought someone on who will be responsible for building up the partnerships and strategies in southern France, too," Polly said.
"There's a wealth of opportunities with CrowdStrike and we're very much invested in building our channel in Europe outside just the UK and Ireland."
CrowdStrike joined the cybersecurity big league earlier this year, with a $200m cash injection, bringing its total evaluation to over $3bn (£2.3bn).
Polly kept mum about any potential IPO plans, but did say the funding boost is an indication that the market sees that CrowdStrike "is filling a gap left by other vendors".
"We've more than tripled in value in a year, and we're taking market share from McAfee and Symantec," he said.
"My message to partners is that there are clear opportunities for the channel with us. The proof of the pudding is in the eating in terms of customer adoption, analyst validation and growth rate."