CRN Exclusive: Attivo Networks Launches Inaugural Partner Program

As the market for deception technologies continues to gain steam, Attivo Networks is looking to further embrace the channel with the launch of its inaugural partner program, the company announced Thursday.

The new program, which has a single tier for authorized partners, includes sales incentives, training, enablement, marketing, deal registration and more. The program is structured to build on five key pillars, John Quinn, vice president of worldwide channels, said: building a bidirectional relationship with partners, strong financial incentives, sales success, marketing, and training.

The ultimate goal, Quinn said, is to help partners build a relationship with customers that leverages the company's deception technology to fill security gaps, drive additional revenue through added product and services, and establish them as a stronger trusted advisor to their customers.

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"We want to make sure that the partner is front and center and highlighted as who is bringing this solution to the table and addressing this gap [in security] for the customer … That establishes them in a position to be able to really control that perceived value by the customer and maintain the highest level of profitability possible," Quinn said.

The program launch builds on a channel-centric legacy at Attivo Networks, CEO Tushar Kothari said. Kothari founded Attivo Networks, which sells a platform that uses deception technology to detect, investigate and help remediate attacks already inside the network. He founded the company in 2011 after spending many years in channel roles at Cisco, Juniper and Meru Networks.

"We can help partners be very successful and bring something that is important and of value … I'm very excited to have a chance to run a company and design the company myself around channel thinking … We are accelerating that with what we are announcing today."

Dave Glenn, executive vice president of business development at CBI, said seeing that kind of channel commitment with the new program is key, as the Detroit-based solution provider is extremely selective about who it chooses to partner with, as he estimated each added vendor partner amounts to a million-dollar investment.

"We figure to really bring on a partner, and especially in our world where we're not trying to boil the ocean and represent everyone … we want to make the right decision. We want to make sure it's the right technology and partner," Glenn said. To evaluate a partner, Glenn said CBI uses a 40-point checklist that includes evaluating the technology, completeness of vision, implementation, professional services, integrations, and more.

The market for deception technology overall is new, but starting to take hold, Kothari said. Gartner announced it would be starting to do research on the area this year and more enterprises looking to embrace the technology. Kothari said Attivo itself has seen "tremendous growth" over the past year, though could not disclose exact numbers.

"We are still in the early growth stage in our company, but we believe the market is at a tipping point," Kothari said. "I think our solution is well-positioned and should be of great interest to the partner community."

Glenn said CBI, which focuses on information risk management and security consulting, has seen multiple strong use cases for the technology with its clients. He said CBI had leveraged Attivo to complement its own technical assessments, as it captures the lateral movement of attacks better than traditional tools. He said CBI has also incorporated Attivo into its managed security services business, using it to complement its internal incident response process, integrating it with its SIEM partners to reduce and validate security alert noise and planning to roll out a managed deception platform shortly.

Glenn said CBI has also used Attivo sales to drive additional product resale revenue, as it allows them to reengage with clients they have already sold into to help them solve security gaps and reduce security alerts with the deception technology.

"I think today it is really about actionable intelligence [in security]," Glenn said. "That, more than anything, is the reason why this space looks good to us and why Attivo is something we're willing to commit to."