Arctic Wolf Networks, which provides security operations center (SOC) as a service for MSPs, has raised $16 million in new funding -- led by Sonae Investment Management with participation from Lightspeed Venture Partners, Redpoint Ventures and Knollwood Investment Advisory. MSSP Alert doesn't know the funding round's valuation.
Led by CEO Brian NeSmith, Arctic Wolf will leverage the funding to drive sales and marketing, product development and strategic alliances, the company said. The firm's flagship service, known as AWN CyberSOC, allows partners and customers to focus on their core businesses while outsourcing various security responsibilities to Arctic Wolf.
No doubt, Arctic Wolf has been extremely busy on the R&D and business development fronts over the past year. The company's recent moves include:
- Expanding AWN CyberSOC to support public cloud infrastructure monitoring;
- Integrating with ConnectWise in a bid to reach SMB-focused MSPs;
- Launching an MSP partner program in August 2017; and
- Integrating with Splunk -- one of the most strategic platforms for operational intelligence and security analysis.
Arctic Wolf Networks Momentum, Potential Competition?
Overall, it sounds like Arctic Wolf has serious momentum but it's difficult to track down actual business KPIs, since the company is privately held.
Amid growing cyber threats worldwide and the ongoing talent shortage, demand for outsourced SOC services certainly is catching on. Still, a growing number of MSSPs and SOC providers are reaching out to MSPs with partner programs. Some key names and relationships to know include:
- ConnectWise distributing Foresite's MSSP, compliance and SOC capabilities;
- Continuum, which is preparing to launch a SOC for MSPs;
- ChannelSOC, which surfaced at the CompTIA ChannelCon 2017 conference in August;
- CyberBit, which offers a SOC to MSSP partners like MNS Group;
- CyFlare — which has a SOC for VARs;
- NetEnrich — which offers SOC services to midsize MSPs and VARs;
- Trusted Metrics offers a home-grown Elastic SOC to partners; and
- Infogressive and Carvir are two up-and-coming master MSSPs that offer their services to MSPs.
Of course, SOC services and MSP partner programs vary significantly company to company. We'll be watching to see how Arctic Wolf Networks strives to stand out from the growing SOC as a service crowd focused on MSPs.
