CrowdStrike: Direct Sales, Partners and Online Storefront
To be sure, CrowdStrike's cybersecurity software business is booming. Revenue was $264.9 million in Q4 of fiscal 2021, up 74 percent compared to Q4 of fiscal 2020.
"Our outstanding performance in the enterprise sector was complemented by our strength with mid-market and SMB customers as reflected in our net new customer growth rate, which accelerated in the quarter. In addition to investing in our best-in-class sales team, a key pillar of our strategy to efficiently grow our market share and leadership is to expand our routes to market through our partner ecosystem, trial-to-pay platform, and CrowdStrike store. We are seeing our investments in these areas over the past few years to deliver meaningful results."
CrowdStrike, MSSPs and MDR Service Providers: Partners and Rivals
Still, CrowdStrike did not mention MSSPs (managed security service providers) or MDR (managed detection and response) service provider partners during the earnings call.CrowdStrike certainly has service partners (for instance, ControlStan and eSentire). But the endpoint security company also has its own Managed Threat Hunting and Managed Endpoint Security services.In some ways, CrowdStrike's direct sales motions could leave the door open for rival endpoint security companies to more closely engage MSPs and MSSPs. For example:- BlackBerry has a well-known MSSP partner program that leverages the Cylance acquisition.
- Cybereason recently made multiple executive hires to accelerate MSSP and partner engagements.
- Netsurion's platform for MSSPs recently gained Deep Instinct endpoint protection capabilities.
- SentinelOne, which is gearing up for a potential IPO, has engaged hundreds -- perhaps thousands -- of MSPs through a relationship with N-able (formerly SolarWinds MSP).
- Sophos bet early on an MSP-centric partner model and single pane of glass for partners.
- Webr00t, owned by OpenText, has a longstanding MSP partner model and big installed base of partners.