For years, CrowdStrike has primarily catered to Fortune 500 companies and large enterprises. However, during the pandemic, the company expanded its focus to include small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs).

CrowdStrike Chief Business Officer Daniel Bernard explained why SMBs need enterprise-level security and how managed service providers (MSPs) play a crucial role in delivering these solutions.

SMBs face unique security challenges Compared to their larger counterparts, one of the most significant security challenges SMBs face is a lack of cybersecurity expertise and talent.

“The biggest thing is the skill fluency with cybersecurity is very low,” Bernard told SDxCentral at the Pax8 Beyond 2024 event, adding many SMBs lack dedicated IT staff, let alone a security operations center (SOC).

This makes them particularly vulnerable to cyberattacks, as they are less equipped to prevent, detect, and respond to threats.

“That's really the opportunity for us to take the power of [Falcon] platform,” he said. “Why should a small business have to settle for a subpar solution?”

Just as medical treatments are adjusted by dosage rather than quality, CrowdStrike launched products like Falcon Go that offer the “right kind of dose” to help SMBs stop breaches without requiring a full SOC, Bernard said.

CrowdStrike introduced Falcon Go last year, which is a more affordable version of its Falcon platform for SMBs. It offers pre-configured protection designed for immediately deploying, securing and managing devices; a simple and unified home screen instantly shows device protection, threat activity and product efficacy; and full visibility and control of USB media for data protection.

‘MSP is the neck on the head’ A critical component of CrowdStrike's strategy to penetrate the SMB market is its partnership with MSPs.

“What I think happens a lot of time is a cybersecurity-aware small business may get started with Falcon Go and then when they're managed by an MSP, that license evolves into a bigger license with MSP,” Bernard said.

He emphasizes the importance of MSPs in this context: “MSP is like the neck on the head. They're making the choice. So we're really in this market here selling to MSPs and by selling to MSPs, we win the SMBs.”

One recent example is managed detection and response (MDR) provider eSentire migrating a large number of its customer base from Broadcom Carbon Black to CrowdStrike’s Falcon platform.

“What's really the problem in this [SMB security] market segment is there's a lot of products you've never heard of before, that aren't in any Magic Quadrant,” Bernard said. Many SMBs are using “watered down legacy technologies,” because many other large successful security companies don’t understand this market.

MSPs are the ones who ensure SMBs can get enterprise-level security without needing in-house expertise.

Why MSPs are the consolidators The role of MSPs extends beyond mere distribution, they also act as consolidators of security services for SMBs.

“The MSP is the consolidator,” Bernard said. “They're the decision maker of how much you want to consolidate.”

When SMBs bring in an MSP, they transfer the complexity and challenges of managing the heterogeneous environment to the MSP, he added. “So now the MSP has to manage all the mess.”

That’s why MSPs are increasingly seeking to consolidate their security tools and use one vendor to solve multiple problems.

“Some of our competitors have three platforms, two platforms, that doesn't solve the problem for an MSP, and MSP is one platform where they can turn anything that they want on for the end customer,” Bernard said.

“There's never a one-size-fits-all vendor for everything. But most MSPs are saying I want to work with fewer vendors instead of more vendors,” he said. “That's a common refrain.”

CrowdStrike partners with Pax8 To help MSPs and SMBs better access CrowdStrike's platform, the security giant partners with Pax8, an SMB cloud commerce marketplace provider, to offer the CrowdStrike manage security services provider (MSSP) Defend Plus bundle tailored for SMBs.

The bundle includes CrowdStrike Falcon endpoint protection platform (EPP), Falcon Prevent (next-generation antivirus), Falcon Insight (endpoint detection and response (EDR)), Falcon Threat Graph (data retention), Falcon Device Control, and Falcon Data Replicator.

Image: CrowdStrike Chief Business Officer Daniel Bernard. Image credit: Pax8.