Jacquie Young (Semperis)
Security vendor Semperis is eyeing the Asia Pacific region for channel growth. Semperis specialises in Active Directory back-up and recovery and is a nine-year-old company with ‘very significant’ footprint in larger global areas.
The business is now eyeing opportunities for growth in the region, according to New Zealand-based Jacquie Young, vice president of sales Asia Pacific at Semperis.
With 26 years of experience in the industry, including in vulnerability management and networking at companies including Cisco, Nokia, and Tenable, Young joined Semperis in June as the first channel manager in the region, before being appointed to VP of sales in October.
With people currently on the ground in New Zealand, Australia, and Singapore, Young shared with Reseller News her plans to build on the existing small team. Expansion in these teams is planned for 2023, she said, also pointing to plans to grow its channel network.
“At Semperis, it’s a really exciting time because the technology that we have has not been available to customers before, so it’s all about raising awareness for the category we address,” she said.
With a budding channel presence, Semperis has forged some partnerships in Australia with Queensland’s Baidam Solutions, NSW’s Content Security, and Netpoleon as a distributor. Its first New Zealand partner will be on-boarded soon.
“We’re looking to grow our footprint based on who the partners are that customers trust," she said. “We don't suit a small to medium business customer, because the more complex an Active Directory is, the more the need for our technology. So, we're looking to form partnerships with those that have the relationships with bigger customers.”
Young touched on Semperis’ “unique” channel model – it has a partner program, but it doesn’t structure through tiers or accreditations.
“A partner is a partner”, Young said. “There’s no expectations around certification – we really want partners to be able to build up that capability. We really do consider that channel is just an extension of us, and we are 100 per cent channel here in Asia Pacific.”
Young says that the market challenge being addressed by Semperis is reflected in conversations she is having with potential customers.
“90 per cent of organisations use Active Directory, and unfortunately 90 per cent of cyber breaches exploit Active Directory,” she said. “The companies that I’ve spoken to quite often have tools that might see vulnerabilities in Active Directory, and they have back-up and recovery solutions, but unfortunately the tools they’re using can see vulnerabilities but not remediate them.
“That’s where we go a step further. We can see whether there’s malicious changes being made and do auto-remediation.”
Young also outlined the patent that Semperis holds on the back-up and recovery solution front. As opposed to “traditional” solutions that may restore malware on an Active Directory along with executable files following a cyber breach, Semperis can separate those files so a malware-free recovery can happen “very fast, within minutes or hours," she said.
On future growth in the region, Young expects the channel to evolve to fit emerging solutions like Semperis.
“I don’t think any managed services have ever been built for a solution like ours before, but I think it’s a prime space for it," she said.
