Alert Logic will rely on Aptum as their primary Canadian partner, while Aptum sees a strong market in the Canadian hybrid cloud space for this type of outsourced SOC service.
Leigh Plumley, Aptum’s CRO
Hybrid cloud and managed services provider Aptum has announced its partnership with managed detection and response [MDR] provider Alert Logic. The relationship will bring Alert Logic MDR solution to Aptum customers both in Canada and internationally.
Aptum was formerly known as Cogeco Peer 1, and rebranded following their sale last April by Cogeco to investment firm Digital Colony. Their Data Centre business, which is focused on multi-cloud services for enterprises, has been the company’s historical core and remains central to their strategy, notwithstanding an increased emphasis on their Fibre business as they build out a neutral host network of small cell and 5G infrastructure.
MDR – basically an outsourced service that combines technology and human SOC staff to provide 24/7 threat hunting services which remediate as well as detect – is a fairly new but growing category of cybersecurity. Aptum has not, however, had an MDR offering before.
“We have not had a SaaS security offering like this,” said Leigh Plumley, Aptum’s Chief Revenue Officer. “We have had things focused more at the hardware level that span on-prem, public and private infrastructure.
“When we look at our business portfolio, we see that customers have moved in and out of the public cloud and into a hybrid state where they need expertise across platforms,” Plumley indicated. “They also have a shortage in their skillsets. This provides an opportunity to unite with Alert Logic to provide a complementary services offering.”
Aptum sees Houston-headquartered Alert Logic as a market leader in their space
“There is a great cultural fit, and from a technology and services perspective, there’s a clean fit as well, as our services are very complementary,” Plumley said. “Alert Logic is a market leading expert. Putting the two of us together is the classic one plus one is three.”
Plumley indicated that their Canadian customers’ knowledge of MDR is variable, with Aptum having to explain it at times, but others who want to buy knowing exactly what it is. Bob Lyons, Chairman and CEO of Alert Logic, said that’s a pretty common reflection of the MDR market.
Bob Lyons, Chairman and CEO of Alert Logic
“It depends on the profile of the buyer,” he stated. “You have more knowledgeable buyers who are migrating from the perimeter and who know what it is, but about half are less sophisticated buyers who just go to an IT place they trust. They may not even know what MDR is. They are looking for a company like Aptum that can help solve their IT problems.”
Alert Logic has had a small presence in Canada selling through some regional agents, but this is their first major Canadian partnership.
“We have a Premier Partner program where the partners are all in, and Aptum is one of those,” Lyons indicated. “We had heard about them undergoing what seemed to be a pretty traditional transformation in their industry. But when we got together with them – actually in the U.K – it became very clear to me that this is a company that gets it, and would be a partner in a true sense of the word. We went to each other’s sales kickoffs and now we are truly embedded at a partnership level.”
Alert Logic plans to focus on the Aptum partnership as their primary route into the Canadian market, rather than to develop a broader partner ecosystem here.
“Leigh and I talked about that,” Lyons said. “As long as we have a robust partnership, I’m comfortable leaning on them to be our Canadian partners.”
“We both have to carry our weight, but good partnerships take effort and take strong communication,” Plumley added.
