The launch of Kiteworks’ new Managed Service Provider (MSP)/Managed Security Service Provider (MSSP) program is designed to address the security and compliance issues their partners face and help them drive business growth.
Kiteworks Chief Revenue Officer Kurt Michael explained to MSSP Alert that as cyber threats and regulatory demands intensify, organizations are increasingly struggling with the serious risks of data breaches and noncompliance fines. Now, Kiteworks’ refreshed MSP/MSSP program enables partners to deploy a platform that is secure by default and designed to meet stringent regulatory requirements, including FedRAMP, SOC 2 Type II, and ISO 27001, 27017, and 27018.
“The Kiteworks MSP/MSSP program enables our partners to deliver unmatched security and compliance solutions that directly address the challenges their customers face,” Michael said. “By leveraging Kiteworks, MSPs/MSSPs can offer a centralized platform for sensitive content communications that simplifies compliance, reduces operational complexity and scales to meet the diverse needs of any organization.”
Partner Program Addresses MSP/MSSP Challenges
Michael emphasized that many Kiteworks partners struggle with pain points around the cost and complexity associated with managing multiple point security products across customer environments.
“One of the things that I think will separate us from the pack is the fact that we have a consolidation plan so that we can support multiple use cases, multiple channels of communication, across what a customer would need,” he said. “We have a way to ensure that they're compliant and that they maintain control and tracking of everything that moves in out of the organization.”
Kiteworks addresses these issues through:
- Simplified Consolidation. Kiteworks consolidates infrastructure, administration, security features, and policy controls into a single, centralized platform. This significantly reduced the complexity and costs associated with managing numerous point products. This simplification allows MSPs/MSSPs to focus more on delivering value-added services rather than managing disparate systems.
- Reduced Compliance Labor Costs. Using comprehensive, centralized policy control settings, Kiteworks reduces the labor required for compliance management. The platform’s out-of-the-box controls, such as encryption and hardening, alongside customizable settings for access controls and authentication, help MSPs/MSSPs ensure compliance with less effort and risk.
- Unified Audit Logging. Kiteworks provides unified, normalized audit logging, making it easier for MSPs/MSSPs to prove compliance through detailed reports and seamless integration with syslog and SIEM feeds.
- Cost-effective Deployment. The platform’s ease of deployment, clustering, and scaling means that MSSPs can meet diverse customer requirements — whether on-premises or cloud-based — without incurring high infrastructure costs.
How Kiteworks Customers Benefit
Many organizations, particularly small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs), lack the resources and expertise to manage secure and compliant systems. Kiteworks’ MSP/MSSP program allows partners to pool their resources and deliver scalable, cost-effective solutions across multiple clients.
For example, defense industrial base organizations face significant challenges in meeting CMMC compliance due to stringent requirements, according to Michael. In response, Kiteworks supports nearly 90% of CMMC 2.0 Level 2 controls out of the box, making it easier for MSPs/MSSPs to help their clients achieve compliance.
As compliance requires intricate policy settings and audit logs, Kiteworks offers policy controls that reduce the labor required for compliance and minimize the risk of audit failures. In addition, the MSP/MSSP program supports a variety of Kiteworks deployment options, including on-premises, private cloud and hybrid environments.
“We have probably at 100 partners globally, but we're not focused so much on volume of partners as much as we are focused on enabling and building very strong relationships with the partners that we have,” Michael said. “There are several thousand small businesses out there that we have no way of achieving a reach unless we engage more and more partners.”
Michael notes that the compliance landscape is getting murkier and Kiteworks customers are looking for help.
“This places our partners in a unique position to provide the assistance to those customers,” he said. “We’re also seeing more and more demand from our customers for the type of service where they want to they want to leverage a third party to help them manage through the complexities of compliance.”
Kiteworks Acquires 123FormBuilder
Earlier in September, Kiteworks acquired 123FormBuilder, a provider of advanced data collection through secure web forms and form-driven private content workflows. The acquisition followed its recent $456 million growth equity investment.
Kiteworks’ process control network (PCN) solutions unify the primary content communication channels of file share, file transfer, managed file transfer, email, APIs and web forms into a dedicated secure platform, according to the company. Its platform can track, control and secure sensitive content both within and outside an organization.
Kiteworks claims that more than 3,650 enterprises and government agencies are using its products, with over 100 million end users.
