Lacework has been working toward a partner-first sales motion, which Siraj will intensify by better aligning their efforts with productive partners.
Faraz Siraj, Vice President, Americas Channels, Lacework
San Jose-based Lacework, a pioneer in the data-first security platform space driven by automation and machine learning, has named Faraz Siraj as Vice President, Americas Channels. The role is a new one, and indicates Lacework’s commitment to developing their channel business. The company has had a hybrid Go-to-Market strategy, and while that will continue, Siraj’s role will be to make the channel more productive than it has been in the past, even as the space in which they play becomes hotter and busier with new entrants and established vendors both entering it.
“Cloud security is a big job and a humungous market,” Siraj told ChannelBuzz. “As a result, we are seeing tremendous growth. We see a new approach to how we handle this, because we are one of the few companies in our area who can change business outcomes. I recently sat with a couple partners who said we were best of breed and addressed specific pain points. I’m excited because our technology is game-changing.”
Siraj’s role at Lacework will be to build and advance Lacework’s accelerated partner-first strategy, which will involve aligning Lacework’s channel team and Go-to Market strategy to support partner growth.
“Lacework has not had a VP of Americas channels previously,” Siraj noted. “I’m here to help elevate and accelerate the channel. Coming into the role, I want to do a full assessment of how things are being operated today internally and externally and which partners we want to focus on. This will include looking at MDF, profitability and services delivery.”
While Lacework has a stated commitment to enhancing its channel and becoming channel first, Siraj said that greater focus is needed to make that happen.
“We have a channel in place today, but we need to optimize it, and we need to improve on our Go-to-Market execution,” he stated. “We need to be working with the right partners with the right focus. I want to develop the partner services play, and to review partner profitability. There have been some unfortunate large companies in this industry that have made their partner programs extremely complex. Being simple and properly evaluating routes to market are much more likely to make your channel successful.”
Better aligning the channel team with the overall Go-to-Market strategy will be critical here.
“We need to align our work sellers to the account sellers at our focused partners,” Siraj said. “It’s the actual day-to-day grassroots relations that will move the needle. We are committed and we are going to make sure we are successful.”
Siraj said that there is no single type of partner that stands out as most likely to be successful with Lacework.
“It’s a variety, and not exclusive to one type,” he said. “We have successful large national resellers, boutique resellers, MSSPs including a major one in Canada, cloud providers and marketplaces. We will evaluate based on the market and invest appropriately.”
All of this will greatly enhance the opportunity for Lacework partners, Siraj emphasized.
“We have no desire to be in the services space,” he said. “Partners do. We also provide them with consulting opportunities before the sale and professional services elsewhere.
Siraj came to Lacework earlier this month from Code 42, where he was VP of Channel Sales. His earlier positions included VP of Channel Sales, Distribution, & Strategic Alliances at RSA, when it was part of Dell, as Head of Americas Security Channels at Cisco, and at Sourcefire before that before Cisco acquired them.
