SonicWall is no stranger to partnering with other cybersecurity vendors to expand the managed detection and response (MDR) services its MSSPs and MSPs can deliver to their SMB customers.
The channel-first security provider from Milpitas, California, has come together with the likes of SentinelOne and Sophos, so in that sense, the deal announced this week with CrowdStrike to create a new MDR offering should come as no surprise.
But there is a difference, according to Michael Crean, senior vice president of managed security services at SonicWall. Both SentinelOne and Sophos have a presence in the SMB space, Crean told MSSP Alert. That’s not necessarily true of CrowdStrike.
“CrowdStrike has been an enterprise vendor, selling their products to enterprises and very large companies,” he said. “We have a huge focus on SMBs. [With the new partnership], we have the opportunity to take their technology to our partners and to our SMBs.”
Getting access to such enterprise-level capabilities has been tough – and expensive – for smaller companies, Crean added. With the combined MDR service – which includes the technology along with the accompanying people and processes and SonicWall’s commitment to month-to-month agreement with no mandatory commitments or annual contracts – SMBs now can adopt such capabilities but also can afford them.
The collaboration will bring together SonicWall’s 24x7 security operations center (SOC) with the endpoint and detection and response (EDR) features in CrowdStrike’s Falcon cybersecurity platform. MSPs and MSSPs will be able to deliver a scalable and AI-based security service to SMB customers.
SMBs Under Attack
In a solution brief about the deal, SonicWall outlined the growing cyberthreats facing SMBs and noting that in this increasingly complex threat landscape, attacks against smaller companies are increasing. Crean said that in today’s cyber world, “the attacks happen to everybody, and nobody is immune anymore.”
Threat actors will continue to attack larger enterprises, which hold the promise of larger paydays, but they’s also better protected and harder to crack, he said. SMBs, struggling with much smaller security staffs and smaller cybersecurity budgets and skills, become attractive alternatives.
The numbers illustrate this. In a report in late October, Microsoft Security wrote that a third of these companies were victims of ransomware, phishing, or data breaches in the past year, with the average cost of a cyberattack exceeding $250,000.
“Although SMBs face heightened cybersecurity threats, unlike large enterprises, they often lack the resources and expertise to implement extensive security measures or manage complex security solutions, making them prime targets for bad actors,” wrote Scott Woodgate, general manager of threat protection for Microsoft Security.
In another report, MSP software maker ConnectWise found that 94% of SMBs were hit by at least one cyberattack, up from 64% five years ago. Given the growing number and complexity of attacks, SMBs are increasingly turn to MSPs for help – 94% of SMBs use a MSP, with more than half of them outsourcing most of their IT infrastructure, services, and cybersecurity needs. Two years ago, 89% of SMBs turned to managed service providers.
Helping MSSPs Help SMBs
SonicWall’s Crean has a history of working with cybersecurity vendors to equip MSSPs and MSPs with tools for SMBs. He was founder and CEO of Woodbridge, Virginia-based master MSSP Solutions Granted until SonicWall bought the company in November 2023, inheriting the company’s MDR, security operations center-as-a-service (SOCaaS) and other managed security services.
During that time, Solutions Granted worked with such vendors as Cylance to combine their security capabilities for MSSPs and MSPs, he said. It mirrors was SonicWall is doing now and the industry can expect to see more such partnerships in the future, according to Crean.
