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Blackberry pushing MDR and growing OT channel
Firm’s EMEA channel lead shares an update on the current partner strategy at the security vendor
Blackberry is pushing its channel towards its Managed Detection and Response (MDR) solution, and expanding its partner base to pick up emerging operating technology (OT) opportunities.
The security player’s EMEA channel chief sat down with MicroScope to describe the strategy and current opportunities for its partners.
Axel Conrad, senior director and head of EMEA channel at Blackberry, said the vendor operated in several areas including unified endpoint management, MDR, crisis communication services and military-level encryption.
He said partners were able to sell across all or some of those lines of business, but it was increasingly promoting the platform approach because the services were complementary and formed a solution the channel could sell to users addressing various security needs.
“We have partners coming from a heritage Blackberry perspective, doing more infrastructure, close business for endpoint management, exchange messaging,” said Conrad. “Then we have cyber partners coming from that side of the fence, and for both it’s a cross-sell opportunity. There’s a huge opportunity for partners in working with us, because there’s a cross sell, upsell opportunity.”
He said partners serving smaller customers were also in a strong position because cyber skill shortages meant those small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) needed to turn to the channel.
“The change in the industry, especially in partners, is it’s a move away from point solutions into a platform and services solution sale, which is tough,” said Conrad. “It is a different sale, being the trusted advisor and consultancy rather than just a reseller.”
MDR offering
Conrad said the firm had recently launched a fresh MDR offering, utilising the technology it had gained with the Cylance acquisition, which was vendor agnostic, allowing partners to pitch a complimentary rather than rival product. That’s where a lot of the current focus was with its channel.
“It’s vendor agnostic, so we tell customers and partners, ‘bring your technology stack, whatever you have’,” he said. “We tell customers we respect their investments, but ask who is managing your service, especially SMEs, who are struggling with a lack of resources.
“That gives partners either the way to just resell or be the trusted advisor. But also, we work as the extended arm for managed service providers and resellers.”
Conrad added that along with MDR and promoting SME-focused managed services, Blackberry also viewed OT as another area where it could carve out more market share.
“We see a huge growth and interest from partners focusing on OT,” he said. “It’s a different ecosystem.”
He added that it was able to offer endpoint protection on legacy systems, including the likes of Windows XP, and that appealed to a lot of customers running OT environments.
“We’re actually the only one with a very thin client that can still work in those old operating systems,” said Conrad. “The managed detection and response will continue to grow. OT is a new market for us.”
