Marty Landry of Field Effect

[00:00:02] Alright, I'm going to give it just a moment here as we go live onto all the platforms and that usually takes a second here

[00:00:10] For anyone that's already in thank you for joining us for anyone that's starting to hear this broadcast as we go live

[00:00:16] Welcome back. So we're here for another session of MSP initiative live

[00:00:21] I absolutely love doing these very happy to jump back in

[00:00:25] Got a fun guess this time and we're here a little bit of a different topic

[00:00:29] I think we've been in a lot of cyber security and obviously that's important and that's

[00:00:32] what's going on in the world right now.

[00:00:34] It's nice to have a little bit of a different approach this time and then also talk about

[00:00:38] some different angles about what's going on out there.

[00:00:40] I'm going to do a quick housekeeping before we get really into it.

[00:00:45] First and foremost, if you are watching on Facebook, LinkedIn, whatever social

[00:00:51] platform out there, we will try to keep up with the comments as much possible.

[00:00:56] Not always 100%, so if you want to interact live, the best way is always going to be the

[00:01:00] Zoom.

[00:01:01] Feel free to head over to MSPinitiative.com, which I'll go ahead and share my screen real

[00:01:04] quick and show that.

[00:01:07] That is always going to be, I guess I cannot share screen.

[00:01:13] That's always going to be the fastest way to join us, ask your questions live.

[00:01:18] If you have not been on the website before, it's really easy.

[00:01:21] Just register.

[00:01:22] You'll be in for all future sessions.

[00:01:24] You can either jump in, jump out as you see fit.

[00:01:26] Whatever topics make the most sense for you.

[00:01:29] Everything is recorded and broken down into a podcast afterwards, so all of your favorite

[00:01:33] platforms, Apple, you know, iTunes, Spotify, et cetera.

[00:01:37] Feel free to pick us up on there.

[00:01:38] And then last but definitely not least, kind of the bread and butter where MSPinitiative

[00:01:43] started with bringing people together, fun community networking, plenty of that coming up.

[00:01:48] So just a few short weeks away, we're heading to PAX8 Beyond in Denver.

[00:01:54] This event for me was very, very cool last year.

[00:01:56] It was the first time that that event happened and it was probably one of the largest events

[00:02:02] that's taking place in our industry.

[00:02:03] And it was the first time again.

[00:02:05] So that's crazy for us.

[00:02:06] Very excited to be participating with those guys here and hosting our party.

[00:02:12] We're going to have some nice secrets coming up with that.

[00:02:15] Some nice special guests, some cool venue.

[00:02:19] So definitely will be a fun night.

[00:02:20] Go ahead, register at the website.

[00:02:23] You know the drill.

[00:02:24] Skip the line, get up to the front, get inside, get drink with your friends.

[00:02:27] Don't get held up on the side while everyone's inside having fun.

[00:02:30] At the same time as that's happening, we will be hosting another party actually with

[00:02:35] Jen from our team and a couple of other members over in Dublin, Ireland at DattoCon

[00:02:40] Dublin. So very excited to be back there for that.

[00:02:43] We did our first one there last year was tons of fun.

[00:02:45] We had just an absolute amazing venue and the venue has had it actually revived since then.

[00:02:51] We thought the venue couldn't get any better.

[00:02:52] Apparently they thought it could.

[00:02:53] So they added some new stuff to it.

[00:02:55] So we're going to be back there again.

[00:02:56] Very excited for that one.

[00:02:59] If you are going to be in either of those territories the week of June 10, make sure

[00:03:03] to register over on MSPinitiative.com.

[00:03:05] And with that, we'll get right to it.

[00:03:08] So if you have any questions throughout Q&A is always an easy way.

[00:03:11] If you have any personal questions you want to let out in the public or anything

[00:03:16] that you have technical issue wise, feel free to chat with us as well on Zoom and

[00:03:20] we will get back to you as fast as possible.

[00:03:22] And without any further ado, I want to introduce my guest today.

[00:03:26] So I'm with Marty Landry.

[00:03:28] Marty, do you want to quickly take a second and introduce yourself and tell us a little

[00:03:31] bit about Field Effect?

[00:03:32] Yeah, absolutely. Thanks, Alec.

[00:03:34] First of all, thanks so much for having me on board here today.

[00:03:38] Looking forward to what should be a pretty fun discussion.

[00:03:42] So again, my name is Marty.

[00:03:43] I am the head of strategic and channel sales here at Field Effect.

[00:03:48] Field Effect is a holistic all-in-one MDR company covering sort of all areas of

[00:03:54] cloud network and endpoint.

[00:03:55] And really we help MSPs not only secure their businesses, but what we found is

[00:04:02] also really helped them provide a different approach to security that's going to

[00:04:06] help them also grow their business and grow their managed security practice.

[00:04:09] So our approach is really unique.

[00:04:12] It's one that's born out of the intelligence background, built off the

[00:04:16] Five Eyes model.

[00:04:18] It is a different approach to security than you may see with a lot of the other

[00:04:22] vendors in the market today.

[00:04:24] But what makes this unique is we're able to allow an MSP to sort of provide

[00:04:29] them all the tools that they need to properly secure their clients, all sort

[00:04:35] of in one package.

[00:04:37] Again, natively built EDR into the endpoint, full network monitoring and

[00:04:41] network sensor and cloud monitoring as well too.

[00:04:43] And we can get into the specifics over what all that stuff means.

[00:04:47] But again, being built from the ground up as one holistic tool really allows

[00:04:54] us to deliver a pretty seamless platform for our partners.

[00:04:57] So that's kind of it.

[00:04:58] I love Chell.

[00:04:59] Yeah, I was lucky enough I heard a pitch from your team a couple years ago.

[00:05:03] And that's kind of where for me it was we work with so many great

[00:05:07] vendors and obviously there's new security vendors out there and there's

[00:05:10] a lot of great ones that do a lot of different pieces.

[00:05:13] Your guys' approach of kind of zooming out and looking at how can you cover

[00:05:17] across all those layers not being in a total layer was what for me I thought

[00:05:21] was very cool and unique because I think where a lot of times we focus

[00:05:25] into a certain security threat or a certain point of failure right in the

[00:05:29] security sphere, I think for you guys, you guys are looking at it as a whole

[00:05:33] and very much zoomed out.

[00:05:34] And I thought that was a little interesting for today's chat because I

[00:05:39] don't know if you've gotten a chance to see any of the last sessions.

[00:05:43] We definitely had some really great and smart people on and hitting on a lot

[00:05:46] of those different areas.

[00:05:47] But I think for you guys, you're seeing it just a little more zoomed back.

[00:05:52] You're seeing a little bit more of a holistic approach about what's happening

[00:05:55] in the entire cybersecurity ecosphere right now and the threats across

[00:06:01] the board and not focused in on one individual area, which is very nice.

[00:06:08] Yeah, I think you kind of hit the nail on the head, right?

[00:06:11] It's that level of visibility that we provide to our clients, like, of course,

[00:06:16] you know, consolidation integration with ticketing tools and all that stuff

[00:06:21] which we can get into is super, super important as well to drive efficiency.

[00:06:26] But it's the visibility that we provide.

[00:06:29] We're not looking at a piece in a silo, right?

[00:06:32] So we're not looking at the endpoint in the silo.

[00:06:34] The endpoint agent was designed natively to work with our network

[00:06:38] sensor and our network monitoring and designed natively to work with the cloud

[00:06:42] piece. And when you have that sort of 360 helicopter view, it allows you

[00:06:48] to provide more clarity, allows you to deliver service that is going to,

[00:06:52] of course, have way less false positives.

[00:06:55] Meantime, the detection is going to be a lot quicker as well, too,

[00:06:58] and really provides a higher level of visibility for our clients so that

[00:07:02] we can be really precise with the actions that we're taking as well, too.

[00:07:08] Awesome. Yeah, I mean, I know obviously it's a fast growing field.

[00:07:15] You know, there seems to be new threats every day.

[00:07:18] What are you seeing on the market?

[00:07:20] Is there anything that right now we should look at?

[00:07:22] And if there's one message you get the MSV world, what is it?

[00:07:27] Is there a certain area you're seeing a lot of people,

[00:07:31] you know, slacking on?

[00:07:32] Is there a certain area that you're seeing as an upcoming,

[00:07:35] you know, good threat area?

[00:07:37] Like what should people really be monitoring today or what is the one

[00:07:41] kind of tip you could give out there?

[00:07:43] Yeah, I think I think the biggest thing is like, you know,

[00:07:46] yesterday's security is not going to work for today's threats, right?

[00:07:50] The threat landscape is evolving quickly.

[00:07:53] Obviously, a lot of this changed after after the pandemic and distributed

[00:07:57] workforces. But, you know, if you've only got an EDR solution in place

[00:08:02] and, you know, you're missing you're missing that cloud component

[00:08:05] or you're missing that network monitoring piece.

[00:08:08] You know, you're missing a lot of what's out there.

[00:08:10] Like we always describe it right.

[00:08:11] A threat surface is kind of anywhere that an attacker can get into

[00:08:15] your organization, typically something that's exposed to the Internet.

[00:08:18] And if you don't have visibility on those areas,

[00:08:22] there's no one area that's sort of less important than the other.

[00:08:25] So, you know, one good example would be the cloud, right?

[00:08:28] Like, you know, ensuring that that you've got cloud monitoring in place

[00:08:33] is a really big deal nowadays, right?

[00:08:35] We see a lot of threats originating from the cloud.

[00:08:38] So, you know, we're monitoring M365 G Suite as whole

[00:08:42] as well as a whole host of other of other applications like,

[00:08:45] you know, Okta, Duo, AWS, Salesforce,

[00:08:50] you know, Box Dropbox, the list goes on.

[00:08:53] So, so, you know, we've been sort of developing that cloud

[00:08:55] monitoring piece, you know, since 2018 really.

[00:08:59] And there's a lot that goes into it as well, too.

[00:09:02] So that's definitely one area that I would focus on.

[00:09:04] And then the other is, of course, the network, right?

[00:09:06] So we can only protect what we can see and what we have devices on.

[00:09:12] So, you know, having, you know, with our solution,

[00:09:15] the way it's designed with a network sensor is, you know,

[00:09:17] we're able to pick up on that shadow and that ghost IT

[00:09:20] and some of those things that, you know, an endpoint only solution

[00:09:23] typically wouldn't pick up on, right?

[00:09:24] We had a really interesting example the other day with one of our clients

[00:09:28] where they installed the network sensor and, you know, lo and behold,

[00:09:32] they determined in their client's environment that they were running

[00:09:35] like a crypto mining software and, you know,

[00:09:40] which obviously is not a good thing.

[00:09:43] And they're kind of going, you know, we've been in this

[00:09:45] a client's environment for a couple of years,

[00:09:46] and this isn't something that we would have picked up on

[00:09:49] without that component, right?

[00:09:50] And it really does go to show that often the attackers

[00:09:54] know our networks better than we do, right?

[00:09:57] And so, you know, those are really the pieces,

[00:10:00] you know, cloud monitoring, distributed workforces,

[00:10:03] making sure that you've got good visibility on the network,

[00:10:06] you know, are some of the things that we're seeing today for sure.

[00:10:10] No, absolutely. I mean, look,

[00:10:13] obviously, I'm lucky enough to work for both companies,

[00:10:16] for B-WAP, Band-Amp, and the B-WAP side, we see it there as well, right?

[00:10:20] I mean, in the VoIP world, the lack of MFA even being forced

[00:10:24] across the board is alarming.

[00:10:27] Over the lack of, you know, preparedness for social engineering,

[00:10:34] you know, verification of user, as people call them to help desk, MGM.

[00:10:40] The amount of times that we see stuff like that is just crazy.

[00:10:42] And I mean, that's one, you know, that's one entry point.

[00:10:46] I've heard horror stories over the years of everything from a smart device,

[00:10:51] listen to music, to children's toy that had Wi-Fi built into it.

[00:10:56] So, I mean, it's people need to be aware of what's on the network

[00:11:00] and what those points of entry are.

[00:11:02] And obviously we see a lot of data going through it.

[00:11:04] You're going to notice pretty quickly at something that's going on.

[00:11:06] Yeah, exactly.

[00:11:07] And like we do see more and more sort of, you know,

[00:11:09] like living off the land techniques, right?

[00:11:11] So, you know, OK, it's great.

[00:11:13] You know, you've got, you know, TeamViewer installed

[00:11:16] as a remote administration tool.

[00:11:17] You know, maybe no big deal.

[00:11:19] But, you know, we're going to alert you if we see things like a Zen anywhere

[00:11:22] or a different tool being, you know, on your network,

[00:11:27] whereas normally, you know, is that good behavior or is that not?

[00:11:30] That's where, you know, sort of the MSP comes into play and,

[00:11:33] you know, helps us.

[00:11:34] But it's providing that level of visibility

[00:11:38] because, you know, sometimes it's not clear

[00:11:40] that there's a breach that's happened, right?

[00:11:42] Or we want to catch things very early on in sort of that attack chain

[00:11:45] so that they never make their way down to, you know,

[00:11:47] obviously worst case scenario.

[00:11:50] Absolutely.

[00:11:51] No, it's 100%.

[00:11:54] I mean, we're definitely seeing more of that shift to move,

[00:11:58] I think, into a more compliant realm, which is great.

[00:12:02] You know, this is a heavy topic at Community Minds

[00:12:04] just a couple of weeks ago was, you know, compliance versus security

[00:12:07] and how they're not the same, but one definitely helps the other.

[00:12:10] And I think as we see more MSPs move into, you know, CISP

[00:12:14] and, you know, some of the different controls,

[00:12:18] we're going to see a lot better preparedness

[00:12:22] and a lot better responsiveness, which is great because I think we need that.

[00:12:26] I think that's sort of where we have this industry that feels huge to us,

[00:12:31] but it's still kind of niche and small in terms of the vast IT industry itself.

[00:12:37] I think for a long time, we were a little bit of a blind spot.

[00:12:43] I think that's obviously turned over the last few years

[00:12:45] when we've seen more of those attacks into RMS and, you know,

[00:12:49] MSPs to get all their clients and land and expand mentality around threats.

[00:12:55] And so it's good to watch the response on that side.

[00:13:01] But, you know, you need to be able to understand what's happening in real time,

[00:13:04] you know, to be able to actually trigger those responses and trigger those controls

[00:13:07] and really be in a position where you're acting in the best effort of your client.

[00:13:12] Right. Because that's where the MSP can actually survive,

[00:13:17] you know, a bad scenario like that, for sure.

[00:13:20] Yeah, exactly right.

[00:13:21] We want to put the MSP in the best position possible to have that

[00:13:25] to have that visibility. Right.

[00:13:27] And part of that is the tool and part of that is the technology,

[00:13:30] because ultimately what's going to happen is whether you like it or not,

[00:13:33] as an MSP today, something happens, you know, you're you're they're going to come back to you.

[00:13:38] Right. And we've even seen in the cases where insurance is coming back to you as well, too.

[00:13:41] Right. So, you know, for us, it's about enabling that that MSP

[00:13:46] and putting them in a place where they're getting that visibility.

[00:13:49] We also do say, you know, the people aspect is really big to it as well, too.

[00:13:53] Right. So having a team behind you or, you know, not just sort of a piece of technology,

[00:13:59] you know, having the ability, you know, in our case to be able to lock a Microsoft 365

[00:14:04] account at two a.m. on a Saturday or to be able to isolate a host,

[00:14:08] you know, as long as you give us permission on your behalf is a really big deal.

[00:14:12] And then, you know, something that we do here as well is incident response and,

[00:14:17] you know, fingers crossed not for our current clients.

[00:14:20] But but certainly, you know, we get calls all the time from insurance firms,

[00:14:24] law firms and others that are, you know, sort of clients have been breached.

[00:14:28] And the tool we actually use is our MDR solution.

[00:14:30] So so we deploy it in there and that sort of gives us the visibility that we need.

[00:14:34] But but having that team behind the solution

[00:14:38] can provide a lot of guidance to the to the MSP as well, too.

[00:14:42] So, you know, we're seeing that's a big part of it as well.

[00:14:44] Obviously, you know, AI machine learning and all the buzzwords out there.

[00:14:49] We definitely incorporate all that stuff into what we're doing.

[00:14:52] But but the human element and having a team behind you

[00:14:56] can be really helpful as well, too. Right.

[00:14:59] No, absolutely makes sense.

[00:15:02] You know, it's funny, I've started to see, you know,

[00:15:05] because I was lucky enough to see a pitch from your team

[00:15:07] and I've started to see your team a lot more.

[00:15:11] Are you guys going to be at any of the upcoming shows?

[00:15:13] Is there anywhere anybody can find you guys?

[00:15:15] Yeah, for sure. And it's a good question, right?

[00:15:18] Because our route to market was was a lot different than

[00:15:22] a lot of the traditional solutions out there. Right.

[00:15:25] So if we take a step back for a second, you know, sort of traditional solution

[00:15:29] on the market, you know, they start as one component,

[00:15:33] you know, get a bit of funding, maybe develop another component,

[00:15:37] get a bit of funding, maybe acquire a couple other companies, sort of,

[00:15:40] you know, both them together.

[00:15:42] And then, you know, now you're going to market with with with a solution.

[00:15:45] And ours was was sort of we sort of flipped that right.

[00:15:48] So again, we are sort of born out of the intelligence community.

[00:15:52] We didn't want to go to market with a minimum viable solution.

[00:15:56] These are these are folks that that created our tool, our founder,

[00:15:59] literally spent years thwarting all the traditional, you know,

[00:16:03] seeing media ours and and traditional tools out there and decided,

[00:16:07] you know, this approach isn't isn't isn't good enough.

[00:16:10] It's not going to work.

[00:16:11] It creates gaps.

[00:16:12] The tools weren't designed to work together from the ground up.

[00:16:15] They don't speak the same language together even when integrated.

[00:16:19] So so what we did is we sort of designed this system from the ground up first.

[00:16:24] And by the time we went to market,

[00:16:27] we were able to come to market with a really mature solution.

[00:16:30] So that so the tool has really been in development since way back even 2007,

[00:16:34] but really 2016 when the company was founded.

[00:16:36] But we didn't actually start, you know, going to market until 2020

[00:16:42] and and really not start marketing until we received our series A

[00:16:48] in 2021, right?

[00:16:50] Or 2022.

[00:16:51] So so when we go out there, a lot of people, you know,

[00:16:54] the comment is how have I not heard of this before or how have I not seen this?

[00:16:57] Right. And so I always say, you know, to our clients,

[00:17:00] do you want the best technology or whoever's spending the most on marketing?

[00:17:04] But but now now we're certainly ready to push that throttle.

[00:17:10] Again, really unique founder story as well, too.

[00:17:12] We were bootstrapped and and basically built and founded off

[00:17:16] off an initial acquisition in the private in the private intelligence space

[00:17:20] from our founder, which sort of fueled the whole growth of the company

[00:17:24] up until we took our series A, which was one of the larger series A's

[00:17:29] larger than CrowdStrike and a few others.

[00:17:32] But, you know, in a roundabout way, coming back to your original question.

[00:17:36] Yes. Right.

[00:17:37] So, you know, we were, you know, we started last year, right?

[00:17:40] A boom and kind of did the whole circuit with the casea show

[00:17:43] and the nation this year, you know, right.

[00:17:46] A boom. We, you know, we're going to be at IT Nation Secure

[00:17:51] coming up here in June.

[00:17:52] So would encourage anyone listening in to come visit our booth

[00:17:56] at IT Nation Secure will be at Connect again in the fall as well, too.

[00:18:00] And then just sort of, you know, figuring out some other ones,

[00:18:03] you know, in between the way we've we've leaned into the Robbin

[00:18:06] Robbins community a little bit as well, too.

[00:18:08] We are at a boot camp and a few others.

[00:18:11] So you're definitely starting to see us out there as more, more and more as well,

[00:18:14] too, as well as the events that we're doing with our partners. Right.

[00:18:17] So and then the last piece to that that that I would mention is

[00:18:21] we're participating in the MITRE evaluation this year.

[00:18:25] So, you know, would would would encourage folks to sort of check

[00:18:28] that out as well, too.

[00:18:30] It's really unique.

[00:18:31] You know, we're the only kind of non billion dollar company

[00:18:34] that's participating in that.

[00:18:35] And again, that was sort of back to the ethos of our company is,

[00:18:39] you know, let's put our money where our mouth is and and, you know,

[00:18:42] decided to spend a good portion of our marketing budget on something

[00:18:46] that isn't focused necessarily on your growth metrics like

[00:18:49] like a Gartner would be or something else.

[00:18:51] And it's really just focused on the tech. Right.

[00:18:53] So, yeah, that's awesome.

[00:18:56] I love that. No, we

[00:18:58] you know, the people have said we were completely self-funded out of our MSP.

[00:19:01] And so I definitely am near and dear to the bootstrap story.

[00:19:05] So I love that. Yeah.

[00:19:06] Yeah, it's an interesting one.

[00:19:08] And it's super unique. Right.

[00:19:10] And and it is, to be honest with you, you know, I've been working with MSPs

[00:19:13] for three and a better part of the last decade as well, too.

[00:19:17] And it's really what drew me to field effect and and in the solution.

[00:19:21] And then, you know, once you see it in action and then,

[00:19:24] you know, you know, the heart burns for it after after that, for sure.

[00:19:27] Yeah. That is awesome.

[00:19:30] No, it's always great to see.

[00:19:31] And I know we're in such an industry where

[00:19:35] there's so much going on and there's such a influx of emails

[00:19:38] and phone calls and all that.

[00:19:39] So I always like to ask that question,

[00:19:40] because I think it's just a little bit easier to shake someone's hand

[00:19:43] and say hello and see a demo in person

[00:19:46] to understand what's actually going on and if this could be,

[00:19:49] you know, good fit for them.

[00:19:50] So definitely keep an eye out for some.

[00:19:54] Marty, we've got most of those. Yeah.

[00:19:56] Yeah. So I'll be at secure.

[00:19:58] So again, like in terms of getting in touch with us, obviously,

[00:20:00] you know, field effect dot com, you know, field effect dot com slash partners.

[00:20:04] If you want to go to our partner page myself as well.

[00:20:08] Emlandria at field effect dot com.

[00:20:10] We can we can go over this a bit later as well, too.

[00:20:12] But, you know, those are the areas I'll be there.

[00:20:15] I like to get out to the events as well, too, and sort of,

[00:20:18] you know, shake the hands for our partners, listen to the market.

[00:20:20] Because you're right. Like you walk into one of these events

[00:20:23] and I'm thinking to myself like it's it's you know, I love this industry,

[00:20:28] but it's also at the same time, you know, it it can be a dark industry as well,

[00:20:33] too. Like it's tough to cut through the noise and what's real and what isn't.

[00:20:37] Right. You know, we talked about the M365 thing earlier.

[00:20:40] It's like, you know, OK, we do M365 monitoring.

[00:20:43] OK, great. Well, what are you doing there?

[00:20:45] Right. Like do you have the ability to to learn on, you know, users,

[00:20:48] you know, downloading, you know, amounts of data from SharePoint

[00:20:51] or inbox rules or, you know, what do you so it's tough

[00:20:55] to cut through the marketing and the noise.

[00:20:56] And I can't imagine walking into one of these events as an MSP

[00:21:00] and kind of looking around the room and going, you know, where do I start?

[00:21:03] Where do I begin?

[00:21:04] You know, everyone's touting the latest and greatest sort of EDR, XDR.

[00:21:08] I don't know what the what the what the next three letter acronym is going to be.

[00:21:13] But it can certainly be a lot.

[00:21:14] So, you know, we try to be authentic in our messaging.

[00:21:19] We do try to, you know, put our money where our mouth is.

[00:21:22] Typically that aha moment for us happens on a demo.

[00:21:26] I love it, you know, on the sales side to find a way to create that aha moment

[00:21:29] earlier in the sales process, to be honest with you.

[00:21:32] But once people see our solution, it really clicks for them.

[00:21:35] And then we like to put our money where our mouth is as well, too.

[00:21:38] So offering partners free trials of the solution,

[00:21:42] encourage them to get it in there,

[00:21:44] you know, sort of sort of get them using it.

[00:21:46] And typically we find we're super successful when we do that.

[00:21:49] Right. Once, you know, we're constantly in evaluation versus other tools.

[00:21:53] And once we get someone using it, you know, typically,

[00:21:57] typically that's where, you know, things are looking pretty good.

[00:22:01] Definitely. That's awesome.

[00:22:03] No, we I think we share a lot of the same philosophies.

[00:22:06] And I really like that.

[00:22:07] I mean, it is definitely daunting.

[00:22:10] We talk about all time and the new shiny object and the tools fatigue.

[00:22:15] It's tough.

[00:22:16] So the idea of tools that kind of compress a couple of those into one

[00:22:21] is definitely really nice.

[00:22:22] I know there's also be curious to hear your argument around.

[00:22:27] I've heard both sides, and it's funny because this just came up

[00:22:29] in that panel, Committee of Minds was the idea of kind of one tool

[00:22:33] to rule them all.

[00:22:34] And, you know, multi-layered approach where

[00:22:38] I have multiple things that maybe could go wrong,

[00:22:40] but at least I have other layers running.

[00:22:42] What's the argument between the two of those for you guys?

[00:22:46] Yeah, and it's a great question.

[00:22:48] And it's one we get asked all the time, right?

[00:22:50] Like putting all of my eggs in one basket, right?

[00:22:54] The way that I like to look at that is it's just right off the bat.

[00:22:57] It's really important to note, like our solution

[00:23:02] is layered security for sure, right?

[00:23:04] It has layers built within within the platform. Right.

[00:23:09] So there's an endpoint component.

[00:23:11] And then something that's really unique is the fact

[00:23:14] that we have a network sensor. Right.

[00:23:16] So you could virtualize, but we actually have a physical

[00:23:18] on-prem network sensor.

[00:23:19] A few advantages to that is it's going to pick up full packet capture.

[00:23:24] So real time analysis off the wire, right?

[00:23:26] We're not ingesting logs. We know logs can be late.

[00:23:29] The first thing an attacker can do is erase logs.

[00:23:31] They're only as good as the data sources that are coming in.

[00:23:34] So we're doing direct measurement from that perspective.

[00:23:37] But the other thing that the network sensor does is it sort of

[00:23:39] we have a saying here that the network doesn't lie. Right.

[00:23:42] So, you know, if if you don't have an endpoint agent installed

[00:23:46] or you're going to miss something, then then you've got the network

[00:23:48] sensor in place.

[00:23:50] Same thing from a cloud monitoring perspective. Right.

[00:23:52] And alerting on vulnerabilities sort of, you know, before they happen.

[00:23:56] Right. So the remote administration tools example,

[00:23:59] we're going to let you know about,

[00:24:01] you know, unpacked systems that, you know,

[00:24:04] or third party software that you're running that's being exploited in the wild.

[00:24:07] So I think the key is having layered security within the solution,

[00:24:14] which we definitely have defense in depth there.

[00:24:16] Again, you know, it's been proven to stop the worst case scenario from happening.

[00:24:20] It's the same platform that we deploy in our incident response scenarios

[00:24:24] where we're expected to recover and create reports for legal

[00:24:27] and root cause analysis and all the rest.

[00:24:30] But my argument against sort of

[00:24:33] or I guess versus the multi layered approach is those tools

[00:24:37] weren't necessarily designed to work together.

[00:24:40] And we know from our experience in the intelligence background

[00:24:42] that what that does is not only does it create more noise for the MSP,

[00:24:46] and, you know, more difficulty to manage

[00:24:49] hopping into a bunch of different dashboards.

[00:24:51] But it also creates gaps in your security approach. Right.

[00:24:55] And even if you integrate the tools together,

[00:24:57] you know, one was developed speaking English

[00:25:00] and it's talking to a tool that was developed speaking German for,

[00:25:03] you know, for lack of a better word.

[00:25:04] Whereas ours was sort of harmoniously designed from the ground up.

[00:25:09] And it's just that visibility.

[00:25:11] So we can see, you know, much to your example earlier.

[00:25:15] Hey, I've got someone, you know, I've got someone logging in from France

[00:25:19] and they typically work in the US. OK.

[00:25:21] Well, where's their endpoint? Right.

[00:25:23] What Internet service provider are they using?

[00:25:25] You know, and when you start to piece together,

[00:25:26] the story allows you to take more more precise and more precise action.

[00:25:30] So, you know, I do feel like we can deliver much better security this way.

[00:25:36] And then the final piece.

[00:25:38] And I think this was a bigger deal than even we knew it would be

[00:25:41] is tying into the major PSAs. Right.

[00:25:43] So we have bidirectional integrations into ConnectWise and Autotask PSA

[00:25:48] and, you know, Halo on the way and a few others.

[00:25:51] And what we've been told from our partners is that

[00:25:55] that's sort of the that's the key that really drives

[00:25:59] the efficiency for them at the end of the day. Right.

[00:26:01] So no, for sure.

[00:26:03] I actually worked for Autotask for five years.

[00:26:04] So I definitely know that world very well.

[00:26:07] And definitely

[00:26:10] it's the skeleton of every MSP. Right.

[00:26:13] It's the core nerve and everything's got to flow through it.

[00:26:17] So when you're talking, they're very much

[00:26:19] made me think back to when we integrated,

[00:26:22] like truly integrated our arm end to the PSA for years.

[00:26:25] Our members and PSAs talked together and it was good, but it was never great.

[00:26:29] And then having that truly seamlessly integrated

[00:26:31] because it was the development team sitting next to each other

[00:26:34] developing the two tools to absolutely be intertwined

[00:26:37] was such a big step for us.

[00:26:40] But it feels like you guys kind of took the same mindset

[00:26:43] and approach on the security side of things, which is very cool.

[00:26:45] Yeah, for sure.

[00:26:46] And then and then like the last piece for us is that human element again.

[00:26:49] Like we've got people that live and breathe this and do it.

[00:26:52] So when something if something did go wrong, like think of it,

[00:26:55] we do an incident response.

[00:26:57] So could you imagine if you already had our, you know,

[00:26:59] our MDR platform in place, you'd be in a much better spot.

[00:27:02] And at least, you know, that you have a team behind you here

[00:27:05] that you can call and is experienced in this type of stuff.

[00:27:08] If something happens versus, you know, you know, I would say like good luck

[00:27:12] at getting hold of someone at Microsoft or whatever else.

[00:27:15] Right. Not to not to pick on anyone in particular.

[00:27:18] But it's a big piece of it as well, too. Right.

[00:27:21] So it's like the people processes and technology.

[00:27:23] And they really they all have to tie together. Right.

[00:27:26] And if you're missing, you know, certain links in there,

[00:27:29] then then it becomes tougher for sure.

[00:27:32] Absolutely. So you touched on all the different PSAs you guys support.

[00:27:34] Do you guys support different territories?

[00:27:36] Are you guys global or are you guys mostly US based?

[00:27:39] Yeah, so we're we're mostly US, North America based.

[00:27:44] We do have a follow the sun model.

[00:27:46] So in terms of where we're located, you know, North America,

[00:27:51] we have an office in the UK as well to a small office there.

[00:27:55] And then we have a few people in Australia as well.

[00:27:59] And that's sort of our follow the sun model.

[00:28:00] It also comes from our background born out of the intelligence community.

[00:28:03] So there's a group called the Five Eyes.

[00:28:05] It's basically a conglomerate between Canada, US, UK, Australia and New Zealand,

[00:28:10] where they share intelligence information versus our adversaries.

[00:28:14] And and, you know, over 60 percent of the people at field

[00:28:18] effect come from the intelligence community.

[00:28:21] So as you can imagine, our you know, our we run deep.

[00:28:25] And so that's allowed us to pull sort of top talent in those areas as well, too.

[00:28:29] So, you know, ninety ninety five percent of our business today comes out of North America.

[00:28:34] We do have clients in the UK and are, you know, do have plans to sort of expand

[00:28:40] further into Europe as well as, you know, on the other side into Australia.

[00:28:44] But from a security standpoint, we at least have that follow the sun model

[00:28:48] so that, you know, when when it's the middle of the night,

[00:28:51] you're not getting, you know, the cross shift person

[00:28:54] who doesn't want to work the night time shift.

[00:28:56] You know, typically your top talent is working during the day.

[00:28:59] And and, you know, we're able to pull on those resources

[00:29:02] in the other areas of the world with our outfits there.

[00:29:04] Yeah, definitely.

[00:29:06] Definitely some expansion plans.

[00:29:07] But, you know, you've got to focus on sort of core markets first.

[00:29:11] Right. And expand the right way as well.

[00:29:14] No, absolutely. I couldn't agree more.

[00:29:17] Yeah, we've followed a similar model ourselves.

[00:29:21] Yeah, great markets.

[00:29:22] And we definitely have listeners from those different territories.

[00:29:25] So I always like to ask and let everyone understand,

[00:29:28] you know, kind of where they're at.

[00:29:30] But I also know that the MSP is listening.

[00:29:33] A lot of that growth and expansion is driven by want and need.

[00:29:36] So if anything sounds interesting here, don't still don't hesitate

[00:29:40] to reach out because what enough you guys do that'll send Marty out

[00:29:44] to Australia to show you guys what's going on.

[00:29:47] Yeah, exactly.

[00:29:48] And like I said, that's just where we have,

[00:29:50] you know, sort of boots on the ground.

[00:29:51] We do support, you know, we'll support customers around the world,

[00:29:55] certainly. Right.

[00:29:56] Yeah, for sure. So if there are MSPs out there,

[00:29:59] certainly, you know, we can support you and we do have people.

[00:30:02] But yeah, if there's a large MSP in Australia out there

[00:30:06] that that wants to come calling, I won't be afraid

[00:30:09] to hop on a plane and come see you.

[00:30:13] Yeah, we we will definitely

[00:30:17] we definitely love that market will be out there at least

[00:30:19] two more times this year.

[00:30:20] I know we're doing at least at the very least

[00:30:23] you're doing a party at the Datto con event at the end of the year

[00:30:25] in November, possibly another one in August.

[00:30:30] Another big MSP conference out there.

[00:30:31] So we'll we'll see.

[00:30:34] Still still files as a plan on that one, but should be to be a lot of fun.

[00:30:38] Yeah, that's awesome. Yeah, you guys are doing great things.

[00:30:40] And yeah, hopefully we'll run into you at a few of those.

[00:30:44] Oh, absolutely.

[00:30:45] Now, we definitely enjoy getting to know your team.

[00:30:47] And obviously, it's always fun to see people who have

[00:30:51] a different approach from outside of the industry coming in,

[00:30:53] especially from the intelligence background.

[00:30:54] Right. And we've seen a couple of those companies pop up over time.

[00:30:57] And it's just I feel like it's kind of, you know, high tide

[00:31:01] raises all ships and I feel like, you know, it's happening across the industry.

[00:31:04] Now we're definitely seeing more of just a security approach,

[00:31:07] a little more of the the maturity right across the board from a security

[00:31:11] standpoint, I think things are a little bit fast and loose.

[00:31:13] You were one o'clock 10 years.

[00:31:15] Yeah, we're seeing less and less of that, which is good,

[00:31:18] because obviously, you know, one of the things we always want to do

[00:31:20] is you want to stay ahead of the legislation a little bit.

[00:31:22] You don't want to be forced to become mature.

[00:31:25] You'd rather be mature and comply along with the legislation

[00:31:28] that will inevitably come.

[00:31:31] Yeah, we always have a saying that, you know,

[00:31:34] the intelligence community is sort of two years ahead of,

[00:31:37] you know, eventually the threats they move down, right?

[00:31:39] They do move down eventually, but, you know, typically they

[00:31:43] they first rise there and then and then and then they move downstream.

[00:31:46] Right. So it is important to stay ahead.

[00:31:49] And yeah, cutting through the noise again.

[00:31:51] Right. It can be it can be tough. Right.

[00:31:52] So we're just trying to be as authentic as possible in order to do that.

[00:31:58] So, you know, I guess your answer kind of earlier was

[00:32:02] the single biggest mistake you're seeing on MSP is probably not monitoring

[00:32:05] that network. Yeah, not working in cloud like like just focusing

[00:32:09] on sort of one one domain of threat,

[00:32:13] you know, or not having holistic visibility across the entire threat surface.

[00:32:20] You know, you're you're not doing yourself any favors there.

[00:32:23] And I know it can be tough, right, depending on your clientele

[00:32:26] and your client base and and who you're servicing as well, too.

[00:32:29] And, you know, everything moves so quickly.

[00:32:32] But, you know, hopefully aligning with a vendor that

[00:32:34] that can make that easy on you is a good idea. Yeah.

[00:32:38] Yeah, I do love the idea that the on-prem device

[00:32:41] is actually measuring the data as it's leaving the building,

[00:32:45] because I do think it just leaves a lot less for question

[00:32:49] and a lot less for for false flying.

[00:32:52] So I think that's that's phenomenal, especially when I look at

[00:32:55] we've MSP to specialize into all the different medical fields

[00:32:59] out there, right. Dental hospitals, we have MSP to a 911 center.

[00:33:04] So you're looking at all those different areas.

[00:33:06] I mean, it's definitely it's definitely needed,

[00:33:10] you know, and it's all areas that just can't afford to be down.

[00:33:13] You know, so. Yeah, exactly.

[00:33:15] And it's unique approach, right?

[00:33:17] Your data isn't being sucked into a data lake in the cloud.

[00:33:21] Like the big data problem is is coming

[00:33:24] or if it's not here already, co-mingled with other other folks' data.

[00:33:28] Right. So all the data is staying on-prem, never leaving,

[00:33:32] you know, the city, the state, the country, you know,

[00:33:36] that's that's where it's housed.

[00:33:37] And then, as you mentioned, you know, fields like medical,

[00:33:40] if you're servicing fields like manufacturing

[00:33:42] where there's a bunch of operational technology,

[00:33:45] you know, there's machines that you just can't install an endpoint agent on.

[00:33:49] You know, we still want to be monitoring those things. Right.

[00:33:52] And then and then as I spoke about earlier,

[00:33:55] there's sort of that shadow and that ghost IT, right.

[00:33:57] That server that's been sitting in the closet.

[00:33:59] And sometimes those are those are the worst ones, right?

[00:34:01] They're riddled with vulnerabilities.

[00:34:03] No one's updating them.

[00:34:04] No one's really got an inventory of them.

[00:34:06] So, again, you know, knowing what's on your network is a really big deal.

[00:34:11] And that network sensor does that.

[00:34:13] And then again, the way that just the way that it's capturing data

[00:34:17] full pocket, real time, it's unalterable by a threat actor.

[00:34:22] Right. And that's sort of, you know, by back again

[00:34:24] to the roots in the intelligence industry versus,

[00:34:27] you know, a lot of the solutions that are that are log based.

[00:34:30] Now we provide log retention for like compliance purposes.

[00:34:33] We get it right.

[00:34:34] So, you know, if if, you know, you need one year or seven year

[00:34:38] log retention for a HIPAA compliance, those are things that

[00:34:42] that we can provide for you as well, too.

[00:34:44] But in terms of from a security standpoint,

[00:34:48] you know, we believe that that the method hooked in with the network

[00:34:51] sensor provides a ton of value and a ton of visibility.

[00:34:54] Really, that's kind of that aha moment in a trial

[00:34:57] that that'll come up as well, too. Yeah.

[00:35:00] No, for sure.

[00:35:02] Yeah, I mean, you touched on the the scary machine in a closet and

[00:35:07] you keep hoping that those are going to go away, but

[00:35:10] you just keep hearing stories.

[00:35:12] That's one of the fun but scary things that you hear on the road a lot is

[00:35:15] you'll just hear those horror stories.

[00:35:17] No problem. I have one that

[00:35:19] a good friend was a paralegal and they went to the closet

[00:35:22] and said, oh, somebody forgot their laptop in here.

[00:35:25] They said, don't touch it.

[00:35:26] And it was a Dell laptop that rocked for three and a half years.

[00:35:30] Yeah, that was essentially where all their files were stored.

[00:35:33] Oh, man. Yeah.

[00:35:34] Yeah. Like we see it.

[00:35:35] We see it time and time again. Right.

[00:35:37] And the incident response work that we do as well, too.

[00:35:40] Right. And typically that's where it starts.

[00:35:42] Right. A machine that doesn't have an endpoint installed on it

[00:35:45] or something that's not being monitored.

[00:35:48] And then it makes its way through the network

[00:35:50] and it can be really bad news from there.

[00:35:52] Oh, yeah. Absolutely.

[00:35:54] Lawyer's office.

[00:35:55] Definitely not the one that you want to get penetrated.

[00:35:58] Brad Gross would have a lot to say about that.

[00:36:00] Yeah, yeah, exactly.

[00:36:02] And you touched on it as well, too.

[00:36:03] There's certain industries that are definitely,

[00:36:06] you know, it's a bigger deal and for sure. Right.

[00:36:09] So and we do like again, we provide the ability

[00:36:12] to virtualize as well to smaller environment,

[00:36:14] distributed environment, nothing really on the network.

[00:36:18] You know, we're not going to force a network appliance

[00:36:19] on you either, but it does make sense in a lot of scenarios,

[00:36:25] you know, to have one in there for sure.

[00:36:28] Awesome. So that is great to know.

[00:36:30] So they have a smaller opportunity where it's maybe not.

[00:36:34] It would be nice to have, but, you know, obviously,

[00:36:36] we know that not every end, you know,

[00:36:38] inclined opportunity is going to accept

[00:36:40] the larger security charge, right?

[00:36:42] You can do without the network piece of it

[00:36:43] and you can strip that down to more of the MDR

[00:36:46] with the virtualization and still protect them,

[00:36:49] but maybe not completely lock things down.

[00:36:54] Yeah, exactly. Like I said, our endpoint agent,

[00:36:57] this is a huge differentiator, has natively built EDR into it.

[00:37:01] And it's a kernel level EDR agent,

[00:37:03] which you know, there's only a handful of them in the world.

[00:37:06] Like our founder was one of the top three

[00:37:08] endpoint developers really in the world on top of the,

[00:37:12] you know, the five I so endpoint development

[00:37:14] is our bread and butter.

[00:37:16] It's a super lightweight endpoint agent.

[00:37:18] So and of course, we've got that cloud monitoring, right?

[00:37:22] And it's fairly mature as well too.

[00:37:24] So you're still going to have, you know,

[00:37:26] really solid protection now on an endpoint layer

[00:37:29] and a cloud layer.

[00:37:30] And, you know, ultimately it's not our business.

[00:37:33] We will advise,

[00:37:34] we'll run through a solution scoping exercise.

[00:37:37] You know, we will tell you where we think it makes sense.

[00:37:40] But ultimately as the MSP, maybe, you know,

[00:37:42] you don't want to deal with hardware

[00:37:44] for this particular client or at all,

[00:37:47] or, you know, you have your own ideas

[00:37:49] and it's your business, right?

[00:37:50] So what's really nice about the solution

[00:37:54] is it's super versatile.

[00:37:55] We have, we literally have one user deployments, right?

[00:38:00] And five user deployments.

[00:38:03] And then it's also able to scale, you know,

[00:38:06] way up into the mid-market

[00:38:08] and small enterprise as well too, right?

[00:38:10] So that's kind of the nice part about this solution.

[00:38:15] So on the MSP side, obviously you talked about PSA earlier.

[00:38:19] How about on the RMM side?

[00:38:21] What are you guys working on today?

[00:38:23] Yeah, so like on the RMM side,

[00:38:26] obviously you have the ability to push out our endpoint agent

[00:38:29] via your RMM tool.

[00:38:31] So, you know, you can do that stuff as well too.

[00:38:34] No real like integration directly into the RMM ticketing,

[00:38:39] but that's all done through the PSA system

[00:38:41] where they live and breathe, right?

[00:38:43] And then of course use your RMM tool

[00:38:45] to push out our agent

[00:38:46] and do whatever you need to do there.

[00:38:49] The other thing that we do is, you know,

[00:38:50] you're gonna get millions of patches a day.

[00:38:53] Obviously patching is like,

[00:38:54] there's another one of those sort of like,

[00:38:56] ah, sore points for MSPs, right?

[00:38:59] And we do have an endpoint devices view.

[00:39:01] So our endpoint agent works on Mac, Windows and Linux.

[00:39:04] Again, it's super sophisticated,

[00:39:07] almost all the operating systems under 2% CPU usage.

[00:39:11] And what we do is we have an endpoint devices view

[00:39:14] where we will let you know machines

[00:39:16] that have critical vulnerabilities associated with them

[00:39:18] and sort of prioritize them for you as well too.

[00:39:21] That's all sort of built into our risk reporting

[00:39:23] and everything like that.

[00:39:25] Awesome.

[00:39:26] That's great.

[00:39:29] So we kind of talked about today

[00:39:31] and what's going on in the MSP world today.

[00:39:32] What do you see or obviously talking to your team,

[00:39:36] what do you guys see coming six, 12 months in line?

[00:39:39] Is there anything that MSP should be ready for?

[00:39:41] Or is there anything that you think is gonna change

[00:39:45] for MSPs in terms of security

[00:39:48] and kind of just the way that everything's run today?

[00:39:52] Yeah, is there any advice you can give them

[00:39:54] looking forward?

[00:39:55] Yeah, I think the big piece

[00:39:57] that we're seeing as well too is,

[00:39:59] and you kind of touched on it earlier,

[00:40:01] is the compliance piece

[00:40:02] and more sort of like incident response readiness

[00:40:06] and the services angle really, right?

[00:40:09] So that's something that we're sort of leaning into

[00:40:11] with our team because we do have that background

[00:40:14] in that angle.

[00:40:15] So we've got a lot of our MSPs

[00:40:17] that are leading with services now, right?

[00:40:19] So we've got a couple of sales tools for them

[00:40:22] right off the bat.

[00:40:23] We provide them sort of an external attack surface report

[00:40:26] that they can run on a client.

[00:40:28] It's sort of a drive-by outside scan

[00:40:30] of open vulnerabilities that an attacker could see in.

[00:40:34] We also have a preliminary cybersecurity assessment

[00:40:37] that's a free tool.

[00:40:38] It's a bit of a questionnaire

[00:40:40] and allows them to open up that discussion as well too.

[00:40:44] But some of our services are paid for services

[00:40:47] where again, the MSP gets to present thesis is the hero

[00:40:50] but they're leading with services more and more, right?

[00:40:52] So we've got a foundational cybersecurity assessment

[00:40:55] and an advanced one as well as incident response planning.

[00:40:59] So these are situations where an MSP can go in

[00:41:02] it's like, yeah, I can plop a tool in there

[00:41:04] but are we really ready if an incident happens, right?

[00:41:09] What if Slack goes down or what if that,

[00:41:11] who are you gonna call?

[00:41:12] Where are we gonna go?

[00:41:15] What are your controls look like?

[00:41:16] And then, so the foundational assessment

[00:41:19] is really built for less mature businesses

[00:41:23] who don't even know where to start.

[00:41:25] So it allows MSPs to go in there

[00:41:27] and really do an assessment of the environment

[00:41:29] and let them know about their controls

[00:41:31] and that guy over there in sales

[00:41:33] shouldn't have access to the finance folder

[00:41:36] and things like that, right?

[00:41:37] And then the advanced assessment, yeah, exactly.

[00:41:40] And the advanced assessment

[00:41:41] is more aligning with frameworks.

[00:41:44] So I think that in the next six to 12 months,

[00:41:48] much like the advent of security

[00:41:51] where you need to deliver security services

[00:41:54] if you're an MSP now,

[00:41:55] you're gonna be called on more and more

[00:41:57] to provide some alignment towards frameworks

[00:42:00] or towards cybersecurity readiness.

[00:42:03] We're seeing a lot of boards come down

[00:42:04] with this as well too.

[00:42:06] Actually really interesting success story on that front

[00:42:11] is one of our foundational cybersecurity assessments.

[00:42:14] They went forward with their MDR platform.

[00:42:16] The MSP tried to lead with the MDR platform.

[00:42:19] The board kind of said,

[00:42:21] we're not sure on the cost right now.

[00:42:22] Let's do an assessment of the environment first.

[00:42:25] And so we went in there,

[00:42:27] we did one of our foundational assessments,

[00:42:31] came back some results.

[00:42:32] It turned up a bunch of billable work for the MSP,

[00:42:35] in terms of sort of implementing proper controls

[00:42:38] and some other things.

[00:42:39] And then when the board saw that,

[00:42:42] instantly the budget got unlocked for MDR too.

[00:42:44] So it's kind of like leading with services

[00:42:47] is definitely an interesting approach

[00:42:49] that we're seeing more and more.

[00:42:51] And I just think that it's more regulations,

[00:42:54] it's more compliance,

[00:42:55] is more and more of this stuff kind of comes down,

[00:42:58] comes down the pipeline.

[00:43:00] MSPs are now gonna be expected

[00:43:02] to be able to provide some guidance

[00:43:05] in that preparation and that readiness area as well.

[00:43:09] No, a hundred percent.

[00:43:10] You touched on selling earlier,

[00:43:11] you touched on the insurance aspect of it, right?

[00:43:13] And your ties into the insurance companies.

[00:43:16] I think we're seeing more and more of that as well.

[00:43:19] At first they came in very heavy,

[00:43:21] right back when they blocked Atto for a day

[00:43:25] on I think it was Allstate or Progressive.

[00:43:29] And withdrew it thank God,

[00:43:31] but a lot of that which came in

[00:43:34] it was just crazy.

[00:43:35] I think it's good to start seeing a lot of our companies

[00:43:39] working with those insurance companies

[00:43:40] because I think if not,

[00:43:42] we're very much the misunderstood child in the corner.

[00:43:46] And because of that,

[00:43:48] it can make just our lives very hard, right?

[00:43:50] An MSP's job is not easy.

[00:43:53] No reason to make it any harder

[00:43:55] by starting blacklist tools

[00:43:56] that they have years of contract on

[00:43:59] or different things like that.

[00:44:00] So it's good to see companies

[00:44:02] working directly with the insurance companies.

[00:44:04] I think we have started to see some popping up

[00:44:06] in our industry which is great.

[00:44:08] You have Cork, you have Datastreams.

[00:44:11] You definitely have some companies that have popped up

[00:44:13] in our field that are starting to work directly

[00:44:14] with the MSPs and understand it better.

[00:44:17] But there's still a massive industry behind them

[00:44:19] on the enterprise side that bleeds down of course,

[00:44:22] just to rent clients even.

[00:44:23] And so it was really nice to hear

[00:44:26] that you guys are doing that

[00:44:27] because I think that's something that is gonna come

[00:44:28] more and more in the next six, 12, 18 months

[00:44:31] is more of that for sure.

[00:44:33] Yeah, totally.

[00:44:34] And we actually have a dedicated resource this year.

[00:44:37] We've dedicated some resources

[00:44:38] towards insurance specifically.

[00:44:42] They are as much as we want people

[00:44:44] to buy cybersecurity or to lean in on cybersecurity

[00:44:49] because they wanna be protected.

[00:44:51] Sometimes it's because they're being told by insurance

[00:44:53] or whatever may have you.

[00:44:55] And I think the insurance companies

[00:44:57] are getting a lot smarter too now though.

[00:44:59] They're kind of going,

[00:45:01] I think they came into this market five years ago

[00:45:03] and didn't really have the data that they had

[00:45:06] on life insurance and car insurance and others.

[00:45:08] And I think they may have,

[00:45:10] it's all about risk for them ultimately, right?

[00:45:12] And reducing that risk

[00:45:13] and weren't really sure totally what they're getting

[00:45:15] into and then the result of that has been seeing

[00:45:18] way more declinations for cyber insurance,

[00:45:21] way more rate hikes and not just like 10%,

[00:45:26] but 200%, 500% rate hikes, that type of thing.

[00:45:31] So what we've been able to do is sort of get

[00:45:32] with a lot of these insurance companies

[00:45:34] and show a path to proactive risk management.

[00:45:39] And through that, what we found is a lot

[00:45:42] of them are now syncing up with us, right?

[00:45:43] So they'll sell a policy and then they wanna tie it

[00:45:46] into having an MDR in place or making sure

[00:45:49] that you have those proper baseline controls in place.

[00:45:52] And that's where we're able to come into play.

[00:45:54] It's better for everyone.

[00:45:55] Their risk is reduced.

[00:45:58] It's better for the end client.

[00:46:01] So it's a lot of risk, right?

[00:46:03] And then there's also the risk of either getting protection

[00:46:06] out of it and probably a better rate

[00:46:08] or getting approved at all, right?

[00:46:11] It is a requirement now.

[00:46:12] So we're definitely starting to get attached

[00:46:14] at the hip with some of the insurance providers

[00:46:16] as well too.

[00:46:18] So if I'm an MSP or if I'm starting an MSP today

[00:46:23] and I know cybersecurity is important

[00:46:27] and I know that there's a lot of people

[00:46:29] out there who are bootstrapping things to get started.

[00:46:31] You touched on some free tools.

[00:46:34] Do you guys have some education out there

[00:46:36] that will help?

[00:46:38] And maybe any other free tools or anything else

[00:46:40] that might help those guys get started?

[00:46:42] Because I see that question asked at least once a week

[00:46:45] in all the different forums and groups.

[00:46:48] Yeah, it's a really good question.

[00:46:50] And it is a big deal behind us is,

[00:46:53] yes, we've got a partner portal, right?

[00:46:55] And yes, it's got tons of great content in there

[00:46:57] and materials and all the rest.

[00:46:59] But I think what really differentiates us

[00:47:01] is we have the people behind it as well too.

[00:47:03] So we do have the ability, an MSP comes on board.

[00:47:07] We're gonna set up first of all a handoff call

[00:47:10] to work with one of our partner business managers

[00:47:12] who's really ingrained inside that MSP's account

[00:47:16] helping them grow their business, right?

[00:47:18] That's a big part of what we do

[00:47:19] is reduce your labor costs, reduce your tool costs,

[00:47:23] reduce all of that and increase your margins

[00:47:26] and then put some fuel behind it

[00:47:27] from a sales and marketing perspective.

[00:47:29] So we have webinars in a box, campaigns in a box,

[00:47:32] co-brandable marketing material,

[00:47:34] vertical specific documentation as well too.

[00:47:38] But then from there, what we do is

[00:47:40] with a lot of our clients,

[00:47:41] we'll run webinars with them,

[00:47:44] we'll run lunch and learns.

[00:47:45] We've had a lot of success around lunch and learns.

[00:47:47] We'll either run it with one of us

[00:47:49] or bring in one of our talent

[00:47:50] from the cybersecurity industry.

[00:47:52] It's always kind of cool to not have a sales guy there

[00:47:55] but actually bring in someone who's lived and breathed

[00:47:57] and can talk about some of the threats

[00:47:59] that they've seen out there today.

[00:48:01] It always provides a bit of a different angle.

[00:48:03] So we'll support our partners that way as well too.

[00:48:06] And then the biggest thing is getting out there again,

[00:48:10] much like you'd like people to buy security

[00:48:12] because it's a hot topic sometimes you need to show them.

[00:48:14] So we do have those free tools available,

[00:48:18] the free attack surface report,

[00:48:20] the free preliminary cybersecurity assessment

[00:48:23] to sort of open up their minds to,

[00:48:25] hey, here are some of the gaps

[00:48:26] that we're seeing in your controls.

[00:48:28] Here's some of the vulnerabilities we're seeing.

[00:48:30] And that really makes the security conversation

[00:48:33] way easier for the MSP when they go in there.

[00:48:37] And then of course, the client is,

[00:48:39] it's the MSP's customer, it's not our customer

[00:48:41] but the ones that do bring us on demos

[00:48:46] in front of their clients,

[00:48:47] we have a pretty high success rate on as well too.

[00:48:49] So we support with full demo support,

[00:48:51] SEs, people and depending on the persona of the customer,

[00:48:55] we can get technical or just keep it super high level.

[00:48:58] And sort of show them like this is a threat surface.

[00:49:01] This is sort of what we're doing

[00:49:02] and really break it down

[00:49:04] into its simplest form as well too.

[00:49:06] So yeah, we've got tons and tons of tools

[00:49:09] and resources.

[00:49:11] One of the things that our partners do say

[00:49:13] is the partner program is quite built out

[00:49:15] from that perspective.

[00:49:17] And it's nice,

[00:49:18] a lot of our business comes from partner referral now,

[00:49:21] ton of our business does.

[00:49:22] So yeah.

[00:49:23] I love that.

[00:49:24] No, it's funny because on the b-warp side,

[00:49:28] we see that a lot where some of the MSPs

[00:49:30] have done very well,

[00:49:32] have kind of led with that service

[00:49:35] and it's cool to watch how much you guys

[00:49:37] are enabling your partners

[00:49:38] because and the reality is

[00:49:40] if you look at any of the services you have,

[00:49:42] there's gonna be ones that'll definitely stick out

[00:49:44] to you as when they don't work,

[00:49:46] people are loud or people are very unhappy

[00:49:49] or if they don't work

[00:49:52] and they have a current provider,

[00:49:53] they're going to be looking for a new provider.

[00:49:56] I think phones are definitely on that list.

[00:49:58] Security is absolutely high up on that list

[00:50:01] if not number one on that list.

[00:50:04] Internet, right?

[00:50:05] When the internet does not work,

[00:50:06] people get very, very loud.

[00:50:07] So different things like that.

[00:50:09] I think if you can look at that,

[00:50:10] it's an absolute gateway into the door,

[00:50:12] to put the door,

[00:50:14] a new gateway into that business

[00:50:15] to understand their other needs.

[00:50:18] We had a recipe that developed a great opportunity

[00:50:20] where he just came in and said,

[00:50:22] we understand that you fill out form for phones.

[00:50:24] Here's what it would look like.

[00:50:25] Set up a whole phone system,

[00:50:26] gave it to him,

[00:50:27] left, called them,

[00:50:29] phone rang,

[00:50:30] they're like, this is so much better,

[00:50:30] this sounds great,

[00:50:32] there's no choppiness,

[00:50:33] there's no reverb

[00:50:34] and they said, yeah, it's great.

[00:50:35] He said, okay, we'll take the phone system.

[00:50:36] I'm not sorry, I can't sell it to you.

[00:50:37] I really need to control the network

[00:50:39] so I'm gonna control the phone system

[00:50:40] because one relies on the other

[00:50:41] and it's just such an easy pathway in

[00:50:44] to understand what their other needs may be.

[00:50:49] But,

[00:50:51] how much you guys enable is great.

[00:50:53] Yeah, exactly.

[00:50:54] And you just hit on another piece there

[00:50:55] that I didn't even touch on it.

[00:50:56] It's, we'll let people get their hands

[00:50:58] on the product too, right?

[00:50:59] So let's try it, right?

[00:51:00] Let's drop it in the environment.

[00:51:02] Let's see how it performs

[00:51:03] versus what you have in there today.

[00:51:06] Again, we really kind of want to put our money

[00:51:08] where our mouth is when it comes to that.

[00:51:10] So enabling that piece of it is a big deal too, for sure.

[00:51:14] Yeah, that's a cool approach.

[00:51:17] So, Marty, we're getting up to the end here.

[00:51:20] So if anybody has any questions,

[00:51:21] I can drop them in as we get to the wrap-up here.

[00:51:23] So obviously,

[00:51:26] LinkedIn, you dropped your email.

[00:51:30] Probably best ways to get ahold of you.

[00:51:32] People can obviously look out for you

[00:51:34] at iTunes Secure,

[00:51:36] probably iTunes Connect at the end of the year.

[00:51:39] Any other ones you guys have to be able to...

[00:51:42] Do you guys list your shows on your site or...?

[00:51:45] Yeah, you know what?

[00:51:46] We don't right now.

[00:51:47] That's a great idea.

[00:51:48] We're posting about them on LinkedIn all the time.

[00:51:51] So I would definitely follow Field Effect on LinkedIn

[00:51:55] for a number of reasons,

[00:51:56] not only to get a sense of what we're doing

[00:51:58] and where we're at,

[00:52:00] but we have some really, again,

[00:52:02] smart security researchers and people here,

[00:52:04] and we do give back to the community.

[00:52:06] And we do post a lot around Threadintel

[00:52:09] and what we're seeing in the market

[00:52:10] on our LinkedIn pages as well, too.

[00:52:13] So definitely give us a follow on LinkedIn at Field Effect.

[00:52:17] Again, mlandry at fieldeffect.com is my email.

[00:52:22] I'll be happy to get in touch with you,

[00:52:24] talk to you about our partner program,

[00:52:25] how we've been helping MSPs grow.

[00:52:28] You can find us certainly online

[00:52:30] at fieldeffect.com slash partners.

[00:52:33] Look for those MITRE results

[00:52:35] that are coming out as well, too.

[00:52:37] And then we've got,

[00:52:38] we are on a couple other different publications online.

[00:52:43] InfoTAC software reviews,

[00:52:44] there's an MDR quadrant there where you can check it.

[00:52:46] So what I really like about that one

[00:52:48] is it's all based on customer feedback.

[00:52:50] And some of the quotes in there

[00:52:51] are like best partner I've had in 29 years

[00:52:53] and some of this stuff.

[00:52:55] And that stuff always sort of resonates a lot for me,

[00:53:00] when you can hear from our partners

[00:53:02] and then we'll be happy in touch

[00:53:04] to put you in touch with a peer group

[00:53:05] or whoever else's will, too.

[00:53:08] That is awesome.

[00:53:09] Yeah, no, it's been great getting to know your team.

[00:53:12] And as I said at the beginning,

[00:53:14] and I'll just kind of wrap it up with that,

[00:53:15] it was a really cool chance to talk to you guys about,

[00:53:18] I think we hit on so many of the different individual

[00:53:20] layers of security to zoom back out

[00:53:22] and then also to kind of take it in a different

[00:53:24] direction, which I think we don't touch on a lot,

[00:53:25] which is that network piece of it

[00:53:27] and understanding the data coming in and out.

[00:53:29] I think you guys have a unique approach to that

[00:53:31] and that's very cool and definitely nice to talk about.

[00:53:34] So for anybody that joined late, all of these are recorded.

[00:53:39] This will be broken down into a podcast.

[00:53:41] So Spotify, iTunes, it'll be up on our YouTube page

[00:53:45] as well or mspinition.com.

[00:53:48] You can always grab them off there.

[00:53:51] You've got all of Marty's info,

[00:53:52] so feel free to reach out to him

[00:53:53] or catch him at one of the upcoming shows.

[00:53:57] And as always, Marty, it's been an absolute pleasure.

[00:54:00] I hope to catch you at one of the upcoming ones.

[00:54:02] We'll be at PAX APION, Data Fund Dublin.

[00:54:05] We've got quite a few coming up

[00:54:07] before the end of the year.

[00:54:08] So we are a little bit quiet this summer,

[00:54:11] but then we pick right back up into the fall

[00:54:12] and we'll go right through to the end of the year.

[00:54:14] So very pleased I'll see you at Connect

[00:54:17] and look forward to catching you and the team in person

[00:54:19] and look forward to having you guys back

[00:54:22] as well at some point.

[00:54:23] Yeah, awesome.

[00:54:24] Yeah, I just wanted to give a big shout out

[00:54:26] to MSP Initiative and Alec, thank you so much

[00:54:30] and to all the MSPs out there as well too.

[00:54:32] Thanks for tuning in and listening.

[00:54:34] Give us a shout, we'll be happy to show you

[00:54:37] a different approach to not only security,

[00:54:38] but also hopefully growing your business

[00:54:40] and growing it through managed security practice.

[00:54:42] So thanks so much.

[00:54:43] Yeah, it was great, a lot of fun.

[00:54:46] Always, definitely.

[00:54:47] Catch you soon, Marty.

[00:54:48] Yeah, right on, take care.