CrowdStrike has announced Falcon Identity Threat Protection Complete, a "fully managed" solution that combines identity threat prevention and IT policy enforcement.
The new MDR (managed detection and response) offering allows organizations to stop identity-driven attacks, shrink their attack surface, and get expert support, CrowdStrike asserts.
Balancing CISO and MSSP Partner Needs?
No doubt, those stated benefits align well with CISO needs. But the expert support component also raises questions about CrowdStrike's ability to both cooperate and compete with MSPs and MSSPs.
In this particular case, CrowdStrike says that its own experts "learn an organization’s identity protection needs, via an onboarding process, and immediately deploy policies aligned with best practices and their unique compliance, business and technical requirements." Also, the CrowdStrike announcement made no mention of partner opportunities.
In stark contrast, some of CrowdStrike's security software rivals have purposely avoided the "fully managed" industry opportunity -- preferring instead to delegate those managed security opportunities entirely to third-party MSPs and MSSPs.
CrowdStrike MSSP Partner Program
Despite the occasional channel conflict, CrowdStrike is gaining momentum with MSSPs, CEO George Kurtz said in his company's December 2021 earnings call. At that time, Kurtz also pointed out that CrowdStrike's business from MSSP partners grew more than 30 percent quarter-over-quarter and triple digits year-over-year.
MSSPs can join CrowdStrike's Elevate Partner Program to integrate the company's endpoint protection solutions into their portfolios. Example Elevate MSSP partners include Presidio and Optiv, both of which are Top 250 MSSPs.
Additional insights from Dan Kobialka.
