RedLock Launches New Partner Program, Continues 100 Percent Channel Push In Cloud Security

RedLock is continuing its commitment to sell exclusively via the channel with the launch Tuesday of its first official partner program for its cloud security technology.

In May, the Menlo Park, Calif.-based vendor first publicly unveiled its technology and revealed it had raised $12 million in funding to date. The company makes and a platform for enterprises to see what is inside their cloud infrastructure, providing a common control point for workload discovery, continuous monitoring, and cloud forensics. Companies can use the offering to detect anomalies, do risk scoring, compliance reporting, and view and set security controls.

RedLock also announced a 100-percent commitment to the channel when it first shared its funding and product news. In an interview with CRN at the Black Hat 2017 conference in Las Vegas this month, RedLock founder and CEO Varun Badhwar said growth with the channel has already been "amazing" since the company's launch, with a focus on regional security VARs and MSSPs.

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"The velocity for our deals is tremendous," Badhwar said of the channel. "It's just amazing. Usually, in my past life, you have to build momentum in the channel … It's just an amazing, partner-friendly tool." Badhwar is also the co-founder of CipherCloud, a cloud access security brokerage solution.

The RedLock CloudView Channel Program includes "generous margins," marketing programs, training, and enablement, the company said.

Rob Davis, founder and CEO of Plano, Texas-based Critical Start, said RedLock's approach to the channel is one of the reasons the security solution provider signed up with the vendor a few months ago. He said Critical Start considers both a company's channel approach as well as its results in rigorous technology testing before signing up as a partner.

"When I'm looking at when I am going to invest in a company, the first thing I look at is their channel program," Davis said. "That's a major factor in me wanting to invest in technical aspects and on-board to Critical Start."

Davis said RedLock's 100-percent channel strategy and its new program are both factors that show the startup's commitment to partners. He said he would like to see the company continue to invest in training, especially as new products come out.

Badhwar said the importance of cloud security is higher than ever, with more companies moving to the cloud and more examples of misconfigurations and other cloud security gaps causing data leaks. In the past two months, that has led to security incidents at Verizon, World Wrestling Entertainment, Dow Jones, and more.

"I think the challenge is that people have this false sense of security around the cloud," Badhwar said. "We have a long way to go to educate the industry." Badhwar said RedLock had seen a "huge uptick" in business after the recent jump in public cloud security incidents, saying they help raise awareness around the cloud security issue.

Critical Start's Davis said he is also seeing cloud security taking a front row seat with customers. He said Critical Start decided in the past year to pursue a cloud-first approach to security, with an eye to move customers to cloud-based EDR, protection, firewall solutions, and more. He said Critical Start is urging its customers to choose cloud-based solutions when upgrades are available. He said RedLock fits into that strategy, with the company offering it both for resale and as part of its managed cloud security operations center (SOC).

Davis said Critical Start is already starting to see the benefits from its cloud security push, with its cloud security business growing well over 100 percent a year.

"Everything we do we are moving to 'cloud-first,'" Davis said. "I think you are going to see that saying, 'Everything new should be cloud,' is all possible."