CyberArk following the acquisition this week of Vaultive is out to deliver an integrated platform for managing privileged access which partners can build a practice around.
Vaultive adds a cloud access security broker (CASB) capability that will be integrated within a larger portfolio of access management software. The goal is to eliminate as much of the friction as possible for channel partners that are making access management a core element of their cybersecurity practice, says Scott Whitehouse, vice president of channel alliances for CyberArk.
Those practices might span everything from being a consultant that coaches organizations how best to implement a platform for managing privileged access to a complete set of managed security services, says Whitehouse.
“We’re seeing a lot of partners becoming interested in becoming MSPs,” says Whitehouse.
Privileged access management represents a good area for partners to expand into because it’s a routine task that has become more complicated as organizations embrace cloud services. Most organizations don’t have the resources required to keep track of which developer or end user has been given privileged access to what cloud service. And yet, regulators are increasingly requiring organizations to demonstrate not only who has access to what applications and services, but also why they need them.
A recent survey published by CyberArk suggests that, when it comes to cybersecurity, organizations of all sizes are more open to external help than ever. The primary reason is that nearly half the respondents conceded, is that even when they know a vulnerability is being exploited, they are for one reason or another unable to do anything to prevent that cyberattack from reoccurring.
Building a cybersecurity practice is not for the weak of heart. Every day there is a potential for crisis. Finding and retaining cybersecurity talent is also a major challenge. But given the level of demand for cybersecurity expertise, most IT service providers are in a better position to afford that expertise than an internal IT organization. After all, the IT service provider gets to spread the cost of acquiring that expertise across multiple customers. The challenge, of course, is convincing a larger pool of customers to allocate more dollars to cybersecurity budgets that are usually only a fraction of the overall IT budget, which in turn is typically only a single digit percentage of the revenue an organization generates.
Because of those issues, privileged access management may very well be a good place to start building a cybersecurity practice. After all, most organizations already have somebody nominally in charge of managing access. They just either don’t do it very well or are simply too busy to do it at all. Regardless of what the motivation, generating a new stream of revenue for a channel partner may be as simple as asking whether those people might be of more use doing something else altogether.
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