Distinct Strategies for each type of Partner, Harshil Doshi, Securonix

Explain the key features of the Securonix Elevate program and how it aims to support your partners and customers more effectively.

Partners are an essential element of Securonix's business. Seventy percent of our business comes through the channel route. This means that partners are one of the most important elements of our business. We win with the partners, and we lose with the partners. That's the kind of commitment we have in the world channel ecosystem. We want to reaffirm that Securonix will primarily conduct its business through partners. 

What we are doing right now is helping partners build their service practices. Whether it's a managed security services provider (MSSP), an MDR provider, or a system integrator, we have a platform where they can build customized services for their end customers. They can provide VBA as a service, full SIEM as a service, or XDR as a service. Our platform is customizable enough for them to build their unique security practices.

We also help partners amplify their wallet share. For example, we address margin protection and reciprocation concerns, ensuring that channel partners feel secure about their interests. This program is aimed at taking care of their needs.

Additionally, we strive to make it easy to do business with us. That's why there are no fees for the program, free training, flexible billing options, and a very competitive pricing model. These are some of the things that partners demand.

In summary, we put the partner first by helping them build their services, amplifying their wallet share, and making it easy to do business with us.

There are multiple types of partners, including MSSPs, system integrators, technology partners, and solution providers. The needs of these different partners vary. For instance, one of our technology partners is AWS, and our entire solution is built on the AWS platform. Another example is Snowflake. Without these technology partnerships, we cannot provide our solution to the end market. We leverage their technology, and they leverage ours, creating a cross-go-to-market strategy.

MSSPs, on the other hand, wrap their services around our solution. Their needs, in terms of availability and billing, are different. We have different strategies for each type of partner, all revolving around the core elements I mentioned. This is essentially what our partnership program is all about.

How do the new AI-reinforced CyberOps capabilities in Securonix Elevate enhance the efficiency and effectiveness of SOC analysts?

AI is critical to our product strategy because the entire world is moving towards adopting AI in every element of business operations and personal lives. For example, many students today are building their CVs using ChatGPT. AI has become so embedded in our lives that it's almost predictable to assume something exceptionally good might be AI-generated. This increasing reliance on AI also presents risks, as malicious actors can use AI to create complex cyber attacks on enterprises and governments.

To counter these threats, we need equally advanced AI capabilities. In the realm of security, we are focusing on several key elements within our AI-reinforced cyber ops, branded as Securonix EON. The objective of EON is to provide a single AI-reinforced platform for decision-making based on AI capabilities.

For instance, we have developed psycho-linguistics to identify the intent of a user and determine whether a particular threat is real. Another feature is policy automation, where you can instruct a chatbot to create a policy for you, much like the chatbots found on many websites today.

We also offer adaptive threat modeling, which eliminates the need for manual configuration. The goal is to minimize human intervention and allow the AI to make decisions independently while maintaining high accuracy. Additionally, we are developing a cybersecurity mesh, designed to coexist with any heterogeneous environment that a customer has.

The cybersecurity mesh integrates seamlessly and agnostically with existing tools and technologies, creating a unified defense architecture that maximizes the value of security investments. This integration is crucial for creating a robust security framework.

Lastly, we aim to provide a frictionless security experience. The problem with current cybersecurity solutions is their noisiness, where everything is flagged as a security threat. Our goal is to deliver a reduced and intuitive user experience with targeted content intelligence to empower teams to counter sophisticated threats effectively.

In summary, our AI strategy includes our core AI-Reinforced platform with the cybersecurity mesh and a frictionless security experience to ensure robust and user-friendly cybersecurity solutions.

With the growing demand for scalable AI-powered security solutions, how does Securonix ensure that its offerings remain flexible and accessible?

Our channel partner program helps us access a readily accessible market through their sales teams, leveraging their customer base. We primarily do business with smaller organizations, SMBs, and mid-market companies through the channel. We enable our channel partners with our messaging and product offerings, and they take our messaging to the market, aiding our penetration. This forms the core of our go-to-market strategy.

From a pricing perspective, smaller enterprises might lack the resources to acquire advanced technology. Therefore, we offer tiered pricing with starter packages and mid-market packages that are affordable for small and medium businesses. They can still get the best of both worlds by obtaining top-notch security at an affordable rate. This 100% aligns with our channel strategy. Additionally, we ensure that our new AI-reinforced cyber ops platform reaches the last mile of the information strategy.

In the last 6 to 8 months, we have signed several strategic partnerships in the region. For example, we partnered with RAH Infotech as our strategic distributor and MSSP partner. We also have multiple large MSSPs in the country, such as Hitachi, ValuePoint, PwC, LTI, Tech Mahindra, and Wipro.

We have diverse partnerships both in the region and outside. For instance, in the larger Asia-Pacific region, we signed up with NEC, a major system integrator partner. We have entered into multiple regional and global partnerships.

The channel business of Securonix currently contributes about 70% of our business, and it is expected to grow more rapidly due to the new channel partner program launched globally. While I cannot disclose exact numbers, we anticipate this business to grow from 70% to almost 80-85% of the overall Securonix business.

ValuePoint, now part of the Noventiq group, is a significant partner for us in the South, conducting substantial business with us. Hitachi also has a strong presence in South India, along with several national partners who conduct business in the South.

What are the key things you are observing among your customers and partners? How is Securonix planning to address these things shortly?

One key trend we are seeing in the market is consolidation. This consolidation is happening in terms of obtaining most services in a single engagement, whether it’s security operations, infrastructure security operations, or incident management. Customers are now looking for a complete package.

They are not seeking individual solutions but are looking for a consolidated approach where they can receive these services as a single point of engagement from bidders, OEMs, or other providers. This is a significant trend we are observing. Secondly, the adoption of cloud services is increasing in the government sector. Many public sector banks and units are now adopting the cloud, which is a breath of fresh air for cloud service providers like us. Thirdly, the advent of AI is noteworthy.

Every organization has its own AI strategy, whether it’s in cybersecurity or for their overall business. They are building teams with skills related to large language models (LLMs) and leveraging AI as a major driver for their business. Cybersecurity is one of the key areas impacted by this trend. Additionally, India is projected to be the third-largest economy in the next five years.

The perception of the country, whether it involves government agencies, large enterprises, or defense sectors, is changing. There is now a lot of regulation being developed by the government or regulatory entities. For example, there are new regulatory guidelines from entities like TRAI and RBI.

Many organizations are grappling with compliance requirements. For instance, certain regulations require all data, whether security-related or not, to be logged and stored for future reference. Additionally, incidents must be reported within six hours. These stringent regulations necessitate compliance, and enterprises are seeking solutions to make this easier. Securonix is aligning with these regulations to help customers comply more easily.

These are some of the trends we are seeing in the region. Globally, a lot is happening that we are learning from. For instance, India currently does not have a national AI strategy or AI-based regulations. However, as an industry, we are helping the government understand the best practices they need to adopt to prevent the misuse of AI. This is the overall drive.

New entrants are likely from the industry and aware of current trends. To help partners, our partner program is very flexible. We onboard new partners with substantial support, including go-to-market strategy, training, and enablement. This ensures that even new partners can take advantage of our program and start their security operations journey effectively.

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