New endpoint security company establishes itself in Asia-Pacific
Boston-based next-generation endpoint security company, Bit9 + Carbon Black, is extending its reach into the Asia-Pacific market with the opening of its Asia-Pacific and Japan headquarters in Singapore and sales offices in Australia and other key countries in the region.
The company used to support the Asia-Pacific region out of the US, but has decided to build up its business in the region with appointments and physical offices in the area – it’s now got an office in Singapore and another in Melbourne.
Newly appointed Bit9 + Carbon Black Asia-Pacific and Japan managing director, Kane Lightowler, said the company decided to make significant investments in the region as industries ranging from high-tech to banks, governments, telcos, and the resources segments are demanding advanced protection against threat actors and attacks that target their endpoints.
“The network is not the target of cyber-attacks. The target is an organisation’s endpoints—desktops, laptops and servers, including ATMs and point-of-sale systems—which hold the information that cyber criminals, nation-states and hacktivists are so eager to obtain, destroy or monetise,” he said.
“With more than a decade of experience helping customers of all types and sizes arm their endpoints, Bit9 + Carbon Black is committed to bringing the benefits of our innovative solutions—the Bit9 Security Platform and Carbon Black—to organisations throughout this rapidly growing region.”
Bit9 + Carbon Black has built out some partnerships across the region. Specific to Australia, it has inked a distie deal with Exclusive Networks and has three sets of channel partners, which includes VARs, managed security service providers, as well as consulting companies for incidence response.
“Exclusive Networks represents us in a number of other countries, predominantly across Europe. That exclusive partnership was extended to Australia early this year. We’ve also signed up partnerships with Datacom Technical Security Services, Content Security, and a number of other players as well,” Lightowler said.
The company is looking to add on to its partner portfolio.
“We’ve got a big push to build our channel. We’re investing in these relationships on all of the fronts and we want to form more partnerships in the near future.
The company has in place a partner program, named Bit9 + Carbon Black Connect Alliance Program, which has been extended to Australia. It covers deal registration, marketing, technical training, and enablement. Lightowler indicated that the channel can expect more from the company in terms of enablement.
“We’re going to be investing in sales and technical training. This enablement will be tailored to individually suit our VARs, managed security service providers, as well as consulting companies. There’s going to be great opportunities for the channel to open up new revenue streams utilising our technology either as a service or consulting.”
Lightowler, a security-minded technologist with acumen for business development in the Asia-Pacific and Japan region, previously led both Imperva and Tumbleweed to significant expansions in the region. He served at Imperva as its Asia-Pacific and Japan strategic accounts area vice-president for more than two years.
He was the company’s A/NZ regional sales director before that, a role he held on to for more than three years. At Tumbleweed, he was the A/NZ regional sales manager for more than two years. Some of his other stints include working at Content Security and Avnet acquired Alstom IT (itX).
Lightowler will be based in the company’s Singapore office and plans to expand staff footprint in both the Singapore and Melbourne offices. He said he would be bringing on more sales and technical staff.
“Across Asia-Pacific and Japan, the next-generation endpoint security space is a fast growing part of the enterprise security stack so we plan to develop some strategic partnerships and need the relevant talent to take this to market,” he added.
