Security vendor BeyondTrust has announced a restructuring in its global distribution strategy which will see it make a major commitment to Westcon-Comstor. This includes BeyondTrust joining the distributor’s invitation-only Accelerate program.
BeyondTrust focuses on vulnerability management, and increasingly, on Privileged Access Management [PAM].
“We are an acknowledged market leader in both PAM and vulnerability management, but PAM is the big growth driver for the company right now,” said Joe Schram, BeyondTrust’s VP of Strategic Alliances, who handles both their distribution and reseller partnerships. “We have a strong PAM solution, but its focus isn’t just on password management. We also cover a wide definition that includes Least Privilege delegation for Windows, for Linux and for Mac. We also have a very robust analytics capability. These give us some uniqueness in the market. We tend to win where the customer has a wide set of use cases, such as wanting privileged account management, but also removing admin rights.”
BeyondTrust’s sweet spot is in the midmarket.
“We have an enterprise sales team selling to customers with above 2500 seats, and another selling to what we call SMB, but which is really below 2500,” Schram said. “Our strength is in the mid-market and larger SMB space – from 500 seats up. They have the same kind of needs as large enterprises, which we address, and we have a good price point for this part of the market.”
BeyondTrust uses a hybrid go-to-market model.
“I would describe it as hybrid, but with very much a channel bent to it,” Schram stated. “Except for North America, we are 90 per cent plus channel. In North America, it is 55 to 60 per cent channel on a deal basis. It is less than that on a dollar basis because some very large customers insist on direct.”
For BeyondTrust, consolidating their distribution with Westcon-Comstor is a major strategic initiative.
“We have some existing relationships, but they don’t add any value to us,” Schram said. “The level of service is pretty poor. We want a security-focused distributor with good service who can bring us into new markets and new resellers.”
The only exception to this will be on the federal government business, where they will maintain relationships which give them access to the federal business.
“On the commercial side though, Westcon will be exclusive for us in Canada and the U.S.,” Schram said.
From the distributor’s perspective, BeyondTrust becomes a major asset in multiple ways.
“Westcon-Comstor focuses on four tech practice areas, of which security is the largest and fastest growing,” said Patty Gray, vice president of Global Partner Management at Westcon-Comstor. “We are the largest security distributor globally, with 17,000 resellers. Yet while we have an incredible foundation of leading tech vendors, we saw an opportunity to complement that with BeyondTrust. Their offering is focused and specialized. They are a visionary in the PAM area, and their business is growing over 40 per cent year over year. We also do not have competitive products on our line card at this point.”
Gray also stressed that BeyondTrust is highly complementary to many of their key vendors.
“They complement our existing portfolio because they attach into a multi-vendor solution with 13 of our top 15 vendors, like Palo Alto and Check Point,” she said. “This will augment and help accelerate both their business and our core vendors’ business.”
BeyondTrust joins the Westcon-Comstor Accelerate program as part of this relationship.
“This is a global channel market program that enables leading tech vendors to engage in a global partnership driven by a single global contract,” Gray said. “BeyondTrust as an emerging vendor can consolidate that channel and not have to negotiate in each region. We simplify the complexity of global channel engagement for them. It lets them incubate their technology and scale their channel at lower cost.”
Gray noted that Accelerate is an invitation-only program with specific volume and investment requirements.
“Competitors do emerging vendor programs regionally, but we are an all-in global play, and that’s distinct,” she said. “It stops smaller emerging vendors from getting lost in the shuffle.”
