‘Hyperautomation’ Startup Torq To Power MDR Provider Deepwatch In SecOps Shakeup

Torq is aiming to accelerate its efforts at displacing ‘legacy’ security automation technologies through working with a growing number of MDR vendors, the startup’s CTO tells CRN.

Security “hyperautomation” startup Torq has reached a deal to provide its technology to form the backbone infrastructure for a major managed detection and response (MDR) vendor, Deepwatch, as the three-year-old company looks to accelerate its displacement of existing technologies for automating security operations (SecOps), according to Torq co-founder and CTO Leonid Belkind.

Executives from Torq and Deepwatch exclusively discussed the deal with CRN, calling it an indicator of how the market for SOAR (security orchestration, automation and response) technology is being disrupted by newer players such as Torq.

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Deepwatch, which was recently ranked a “contender” in MDR by Forrester, is the largest MDR vendor that Torq has suppled with its hyperautomation platform so far, Belkind said.

“It’s a significant step because [Deepwatch] is one of the market leaders and one of the bigger players in the market,” he said in an interview. “To have them fully base their service on [Torq] as their infrastructure shows the level of maturity that we now have.”

Looking ahead, Belkind said, “we have additional ones of the same magnitude that are coming up.”

With the inclusion of Deepwatch, Torq’s platform is now used by a total of 11 MDR providers, he said.

Founded in 2020, Torq offers a no-code method for automating SecOps activities, which boosts security analyst productivity by completing numerous Security Operations Center (SOC) tasks faster and more easily, according to the startup.

At Deepwatch, for instance, integrating third-party products is significantly easier with Torq’s technology than it has been with “legacy” SOAR, according to Belkind. And that ultimately leads to better security outcomes, he said.

“From the get-go, the [security] event gets enriched from way more dimensions and gets sorted out as either a true positive or a false positive with much better efficiency,” Belkind said.

A second major advantage for Deepwatch in using Torq will be how quickly customers can be on-boarded, he said.

“We drastically reduce that,” Belkind said. “So any new customer coming to the platform gets to the full protection level way faster, improving the security level.”

Lori Cornmesser, senior vice president of global channel sales and alliances at Deepwatch, said the MDR provider expects that switching to Torq’s hyperautomation technology from SOAR will “give our analysts the ability to respond to threats in very near real-time.”

Embracing Torq’s technology will enable “flexible and responsive triage” of threats, as well as automation of incident enrichment that allows for a “highly customized response,” Cornmesser said.

Deepwatch expects to complete its full migration to Torq “very soon,” she said.

For the Tampa, Fla.-based company, which generates 100 percent of its sales with the help of partners, teaming with Torq should only enhance the channel opportunity in working with Deepwatch’s MDR platform, according to Cornmesser.

With Deepwatch leveraging Torq’s differentiated technology, “partners can feel confident that we’re solving real customer issues,” she said.

Despite being an early stage company, Torq has also put a strong focus on channel partners, Belkind noted.

In June, Portland, Ore.-based Torq unveiled a channel program that the startup said offers the highest possible margin guarantee. The Torq Partner Acceleration Program guarantees MSP and MSSP partners margin of 25 percent, the company has said.

Ricardo Panez, president and COO of Compuquip, a Torq partner based in Doral, Fla., said that when it comes to “automating our functions within our SOC, [Torq] is light years ahead of other products.”

Over the past year of working with the startup, Torq has become “the core of our solution offering,” Panez said. “It has changed our business and made our time to respond much, much better.”

As one indicator, of the 20,000 alerts per month that Compuquip processes, the company had previously been able to automate between 500 and 600 of the alerts, he said. But since implementing Torq’s platform, Compuquip is now able to automate 12,000 of the alerts, according to Panez.

While Compuquip does not currently work with Deepwatch, Panez said he expects the MDR provider will see a massive improvement in the productivity of its analysts and the security outcomes it can deliver. “Torq going to make their analysts better,” he said.