Mumbai: Global network security solution provider, Tenable Network Security, is betting big on its partner ecosystem to expand its footprints in India. The company, which forayed into the Indian market in 2016, is looking to expand its current partner base.
In an exclusive interaction with Channel Times, Manoj Taskar, Country Manager (APAC & SAARC) gives an overview of Tenable’s channel engagement in India. “Our business is purely partner driven and we closely work with security specialised partners, who have strong regional presence. These partners are exclusively associated with our brand and play specific roles for us in their respective regions, Taskar said.
iValue Info Solutions and M. Tech Solutions are the national distributors of Tenable. The company has tied up with seven exclusive MSSP partners such as Jainam Technologies, CMC Limited, Optimistic Technology Solutions to name a few. Apart from these registered partners, the Tenable also works with reseller partners, who can purchase products, get training and professional services directly from the authorised distributors.
Tenable Network Security provides continuous network monitoring and vulnerability management services to enterprises across the domain. The company is best known in the industry for its vulnerability scanner Nessus. Tenable recently announced the launch of Tenable.io Vulnerability Management, Tenable.io Web Application Scanning, Tenable.io Container Security services.
The company currently has over 1,000,000+ users and around 20,000 enterprise customers worldwide. Last year the company announced that it had raised $250 million, a large Series B aimed at accelerating the company’s push into global cyber security markets. BFSI, Pharmaceutical and telecom are the three focused verticals for Tenable in India.
“We entered into the Indian market last year and established our strong footprints in the West, South and North region. East is the only region, where we do not have a direct presence yet and we are exploring the ways to engage with partners in the eastern region,” Taskar said.
MSSP is currently the hot topic in the channel and all security focused partners are keen to enter into the space. However, many partners are not confident about their strengths and capabilities. Taskar said that the MSSP business model has a huge scope for improvement in India.
“We see that partners are finding the ways and means to figure out the business models to service their customers, but none of them can be called as genuine MSSPs. Today customers want additional services for free of cost, hence, it is big challenge in front of partners that how they can service their customers by managing the cost and margins. Therefore, partners will have to come up with viable business model to sustain in their business,” Taskar said.
Talking about his key thrust areas in terms of channel expansion, Taskar said that the company will hire more security specialist partners, but it would have a very selective approach. Tenable has recently rolled out “Cash in the Pocket program”, which incentivizes all channels to get newer accounts on board and generate deals. The company also runs a half yearly training program for partners.
“We are looking for partners who are hungry for business and growth because these partners will ultimately grow our business. We will be chasing niche security specialized partners across the country. Currently, our channel strategy is pretty much flat in India, but once we have more partners, we will have more structure channel programs in place,” Taskar summed up.