Check Point CCO outlines channel strategy as more partners look to 'grow and expand' in new areas

Cyber security vendor Check Point says it is providing 'plenty of opportunity and avenues for growth' for channel partners

Cybersecurity vendor Check Point is providing "plenty of opportunity and avenues for growth" for channel partners as they plan on expanding in new areas, its new chief commercial officer told CRN.

Rupal Hollenbeck joined Check Point in March, taking over the CCO role from Dan Yerushalmi who left the business to focus more on family and personal interests.

She is responsible for the company's sales and marketing operations globally, bringing 25 years of experience in leadership roles at Oracle, Intel and Cerebras Systems.

Hollenbeck said many of Check Point's channel partners that sell its Quantum network security line are continuing to "grow and expand", with many looking at new areas of cloud security.

This includes growing in its Harmony area - which provides a unified security solution for users devices and access - as well as the CloudGuard area.

"So those would be the two areas where we're both helping existing partners expand and they're giving us input on how to expand," Hollenbeck said.

She added that as partners do this, Check Point is embracing new breeds of channel partners who specialise in cloud security, delivering cloud security products and services.

Hollenbeck said: "This gives us an opportunity to help our existing channel partners grow in new areas and find new avenues for both top line and bottom line growth.

"Then it also helps us in that we're exposing ourselves and getting introduced to all sorts of new channel partners who specialise in those new areas.

"So those that have been loyal partners of ours get to expand their businesses as we expand ours.

"There's plenty of opportunity and avenues for growth for existing channel partners."

Speaking about trends in the cybersecurity space, Hollenbeck said that customers are looking "more and more" at threat prevention as part of their future investments.

But she said that among these trends is "complexity", with there being many innovations across different vendors for customers.

Hollenbeck said: "We'd love to see a really vibrant ecosystem of innovation. That ecosystem of innovation causes complexity though for our customers.

"So rather than being able to manage their infrastructure across one single pane of glass, they currently are looking at many systems, they're looking at many vendors that provide them pocket solutions in different areas."

She felt this is a "growing challenge" for chief information security officers (CISOs) around the world, adding that managing "this complexity is difficult".

Hollenbeck explained the way round this is to "provide this virtual single pane of glass that allows them to look at the security of their infrastructure at once".

"This is something we call Infinity. Infinity is a collection of products and services that really deliver on an overall compelling total cost of ownership proposition with that ease of management through a virtual single pane of glass.

"So, we both see this trend of vendor and solution complexity and we see an opportunity to consolidate and to be able to deliver higher levels of value to our customers. It's really exciting for us."