The new CrowdStrike Powered Service Provider Program (CPSP) program is the first such organization CrowdStrike has created for service provider partners, and offers them a variety of bundles and discounts.
Michael Rogers, vice president, global alliances at CrowdStrike
Cloud-native security platform provider CrowdStrike has announced their new CrowdStrike Powered Service Provider Program (CPSP) program. The CPSP program, which is a separate organization within the Elevate Partner Program, consists of two tiers, with the second being an Elite Tier that is currently invitation only. The program as a whole is designed to support a broad range of partner types with discounts on both CrowdStrike bundles and individual modules.
The new program comes within the context in which the Elevate program only dates from 2019 and the channel itself entering play not long before that, as CrowdStrike started out with a direct model. There was no separate service provider track previously.
“We are always evaluating ways we can go to market with partners,” said Michael Rogers, vice president, global alliances at CrowdStrike, who replaced Matthew Polly as Channel Chief when Polly was promoted last February. “We have a crawl, walk and run strategy. In 2019, we hired one individual, who built our ongoing strategy. The initial focus was on the 2000 seat and below space, a part of the market that struggles with resources around cybersecurity, and where we believe that companies who don’t have these necessary resources will be serviced by MSPs.”
The CPSP has two tiers, with the second being an elite, invitation-only tier, but Rogers emphasized that while these players will all have a lot of endpoints under management, they will not necessarily be CrowdStrike’s largest partners.
‘The Elite tier has certain requirements,” Rogers said. “We do have different partner types represented. Any partner that offers a managed service could be a CPSP, as some of these partners have over a million of endpoints. This tier launched with six partners — Cyber Defense Labs, Deloitte, eSentire, Marco Technologies, Orange Cyberdefense and Sirius.
The Elite tier requires a minimum number of CrowdStrike’s packaged license commitments, to have a percentage of employees certified on CrowdStrike, and to adopt a specific number of CrowdStrike’s 22 modules.
A main enablement asset of the new program is discounts on CrowdStrike bundles and modules. CPSP partners get maximum flexibility by being able to choose between CrowdStrike package bundles or individual Falcon platform modules into their security offerings to their customers. There is a CPSP partner discount for specialized package bundles and add-on modules, powered by the Falcon platform. There are also volume-based discounts for CPSP package bundles.
“We have also enhanced our investment in training and resources,” Rogers said. “We have maintained our three certification levels – CCFA, CCFH, and CCFR – although we have enhanced the content. We have also invested in additional solution architects.”
“Our philosophy is always to have an ecosystem of the right partners,” Rogers stated.
