Claroty's Radford on the vendor's channel approach, Deloitte partnership
The new partnership aims to “drive more value into the market”
Cyber-physical systems protection vendor, Claroty, recently announced that its Claroty xDome system would power the operational technology (OT) module built into Deloitte's expanded managed extended detection and response (MXDR).
In an interview with CRN following the announcement , CJ Radford, global VP of channel and alliances at Claroty explains the company's focus on partners investing in its technologies and expanding benefits and margins for them.
Radford explains that enablement is the number one priority for Claroty and its partners.
"We want to understand the different user-cases where clarity can add value to customers and in their business," he says.
"The number two priority is really focusing on those partners that deliver on that and want to join us on this journey, really investing in us and us investing in them.
"We want to make this into our focus - which partners are we willing to take a bet on? What partners are going to take a bet on us?
"It's really hard to target equally across an ecosystem of partners. So we're really focusing on who is betting on us and deciding what we're betting on to drive mutual opportunity in the market."
He also adds that in another move to enhance partnerships, Claroty is making a "concerted effort" around its partner programme to enhance benefits.
Radford says that Claroty recently "more than doubled" its deal registration discount and margin share for partners. On top of that, the vendor has also developed a new rewards programme for its partners that went live in July 2023.
"So, we're really focusing on enabling and enhancing our rewards and value to those partners that want to work with us."
The Deloitte partnership
The MXDR by Deloitte OT module is designed to deliver end-to-end detection and response, vulnerability management, lifecycle visibility, and asset tracking for OT systems.
"As the threat landscape grows and attack tactics, techniques, and procedures become more sophisticated, security teams need coverage across a broad set of tools, which can overburden security teams - they need strong technology integrations to fight back against tool fatigue," says CJ Radford, global VP channel & alliances at Claroty, speaking to CRN.
"The powerful combination of Claroty and the Deloitte MXDR OT module not only brings innovation to the legacy tech-plagued OT space, but it also brings relief to the boots on the ground juggling entangled solution sets."
He explains how many of Claroty customers might not have the capabilities or the skillset internally to take advantage of tools to improve their cyber resiliency.
"It's really hard for a certain segment market to have that competency, the technical expertise. Not only with individual tool sets, but also bringing them all together and having them work in concert."
With this partnership Claroty and Deloitte hope to provide a further development in the tools needed to develop that security resilience.
Chris Richter, Deloitte global cyber detect and respond product leader also commented saying: "MXDR by Deloitte provides advanced threat prevention, detection, and response that requires technology collaborations equally qualified in leading innovation across the security environment - all while lowering total cost of ownership.
"Claroty's technology alliance ecosystem, paired with our offering, empowers organisations to reach new levels of operational resilience across their increasingly connected OT environments."
The two firms say that Claroty's technology will provide MXDR by Deloitte clients with comprehensive asset visibility, equipped to identify, measure, and prioritise risk, deploy zero trust-based protective controls, and optimise threat detection.
A challenging market
Radford says that while the cybersecurity market is still growing and expanding there are challenges to face.
"The economic headwinds around the world that that I think everybody sees in the headlines, with inflationary pressure, and some of the monetary changes that a lot of these governments are making - interest rates rising etc.
"There's a contraction of money supply and the challenge is how do you maintain your growth aspirations in this environment.
"So, for us that's really just about delivering value, and delivering on your promises of what your technology does for customers."
Another priority for the vendor has been about staying ahead of the changes in the compliance landscape.
"There's a lot of new upcoming laws and various countries that will change the way that companies have to follow legal regulations around security of their of their data, of their identity, or their employee identities/customer data.
"And so, just trying to stay on top of all that and be able to deliver solutions that meet those compliance frameworks, it's a bit of a challenge, but also an opportunity.
Radford explains Claroty is investing a lot in understanding what those compliance for MX are and how the company can help customers meet those compliance frameworks with the countries that they're there in.
The talent question
Finally, it wouldn't be a conversation about market challenges if skills and talent shortage didn't get a mention.
"I think there's a deficiency, broadly speaking, in terms of the skills that that people have, and that companies and organisations want and even vendors like ourselves want to hire.
"And so there's a need for levelling up people on the technical side and on the commercial side, within the within the security market.
"There are more jobs in security than there are people to actually fill those security holes."
Radford does note some "movement" and in the way the community has been tackling the issue.
He says companies have been investing in developing their staff and supporting universities in investing in cyber education and cyber skill attainment.
"You're starting to see some of that, but that's going to take time to bridge the gap."