StrikeReady hits target with guided Google Cloud Marketplace launch

Optimizing and centralizing cyber threat defense

Today’s enterprises face growing security challenges due to rapid digitalization and more sophisticated bad actors looking to compromise critical systems. The larger the organization, the more dispersed and decentralized the security tech stack. As the pioneer in AI-powered Security Command Centers and conversational AI, StrikeReady is a vendor-neutral platform that requires no coding, delivering immediate time-to-value in investments in Google Cloud and extended third-party tech stacks, accelerating security programs and maturity.

“The StrikeReady platform offers over 600 integrations with 300 products including the Google Cloud security product suite,” explains Salim Scafuto, Chief Client Officer at StrikeReady. “The time-to-value for our customers is high because of no-code integration within the cloud-managed ecosystem.”

CARA, which stands for Cyber Awareness and Response Analyst, is StrikeReady’s AI-powered expert assistant. “CARA enables security teams to go from knowing zero about a new threat to being able to remediate that threat, and everything in between,” says Scafuto. “This lets companies maximize their investment in both our technology and in people via better efficiency and collaboration.”

Business challenge

Finding the best cloud partner for a channel-first sales strategy

StrikeReady knew customers would benefit from a convenient path to adopt their platform. By listing in a cloud marketplace, they could connect with customers, both current and prospective, who had existing partnerships and commitments. 

“StrikeReady is a channel-first company and simply doesn’t do direct deals,” explains Scafuto. “We are a platform, not a product or a feature, so for us long-term impact is critical and the channel is the way to get there.” 

Based on customer recommendations, StrikeReady selected Google Cloud, and with SADA’s help, built their first marketplace. “Our customers indicated that Google Cloud was the best option because of strategic alignment both domestically and internationally,” says Scafuto. “We can do business in every industry vertical and won’t run into competitive roadblocks.”

But creating a Google Cloud Marketplace listing requires knowledge and thoughtful expertise. After being introduced to SADA at an industry event in Dallas, a key partnership was born.

“SADA worked together with Google Cloud and proved very helpful in navigating our way toward the right types of models, margins, consumption, and metrics, which ultimately led to our Google Cloud Marketplace listing,” says Scafuto. “There’s no doubt in my mind that it would’ve been significantly more difficult, time-consuming, and expensive to achieve that on our own.”

Solution

StrikeReady’s partnership with SADA provided the following benefits:

• Navigation of the proprietary Google Cloud Marketplace process
• Support and guidance from SADA experts for a seamless marketplace integration
• Access to SADA solution architects and a 300+ engineering bench for consultation, guidance, and best practices for Google Workspace and Google Cloud  

Throughout the engagement, SADA helped StrikeReady fine-tune their product description, product name, feature benefits, and their offerings with the ultimate goal of optimizing results in a marketplace context.

“We sell a platform that is sophisticated and highly integrated, so our large engineering team is focused on building out our vision, rather than go-to-market,” says Scafuto. “Having SADA guide us in the Google Cloud Marketplace listing process was crucial from a leadership perspective. It saved our operations team from wasting valuable time scoping, and they could dedicate that freed-up time to building the platform.”

The Google Cloud Marketplace listing engagement was divided into two phases: the Marketplace Readiness Assessment and Marketplace Integration.

Passing the Marketplace Readiness Assessment

The Marketplace Readiness Assessment included assessing StrikeReady’s Google Cloud architecture diagram. It required that StrikeReady present not only the mapping of their architecture but also how it would impact Google Cloud’s architecture. This amounted to a blended reference architecture, which helped StrikeReady better understand their cost of goods and services and the potential services within Google Cloud Marketplace that could uplevel their offerings.

“The architectural blending helped us understand not only where we are today but also what architectural options are available in the future, which impacts our ability to provide better financial and architectural metrics for growth,” says Scafuto.

Creating and testing the marketplace listing

Marketplace integration included creation of the marketing listing and testing of its end-to-end functionality. Throughout all this, StrikeReady was able to advance the process without having to dedicate a billable-hours employee to the task due to SADA.

“SADA put their best foot forward and truly proved themselves as a strategic partner,” says Scafuto.

Impact

Cutting assessment time by over 50%

Working with SADA, StrikeReady completed their Marketplace Readiness Assessment in just six weeks. In comparison, the company estimates they’d have needed 12 weeks and a few days to complete the project by going solo.

“It would have taken us a full business quarter to complete the Marketplace Readiness Assessment on our own,” says Chance Hoover, Director of Channel Sales at StrikeReady. “The time savings that SADA achieved for StrikeReady was immense.” 

Optimizing pricing within the marketplace

SADA’s help also extended to optimizing pricing within Google Cloud Marketplace for the StrikeReady listing. “At the end of the day, we are a subscription-based product,” says Scafuto. “While it’s cloud managed, subscriptions are more of a historical hardware-and-software-versus-utility model.”

StrikeReady needed to adjust pricing in a way that met Google Cloud Marketplace metrics so it fit within the framework and guidance on public-offer products.

“We didn’t have experience with the way products were listed, positioned, and priced on Google Cloud Marketplace compared to other marketplaces we’ve worked on before,” says Scafuto. “SADA helped us navigate that with the sales, customer success, and technical teams, and worked with all our interlocutors throughout the process.”

Collaborating on co-marketing opportunities

Collaborating with SADA has led to valuable co-marketing opportunities for StrikeReady, which in turn has introduced potential StrikeReady customers to the unique benefits that AI-powered security defenses can bring to their enterprises. Recently, they co-sponsored an event at a Dallas Mavericks game, which brought together security leaders, directors of security, and CISOs.

“This event was a great venue to showcase our platform, and provided excellent ROI,” says Scafuto. “AI was the topic of the day for these organizations, and remains so. People want to talk about it, and we were able to present our security vision and perspective alongside Google Cloud as an infrastructure partner and SADA as solutions provider.”

Ultimately, by choosing to collaborate with SADA on their Google Cloud Marketplace integration, StrikeReady:

• Completed the Marketplace Readiness Assessment in under 50% of the time it would have taken to do independently 
• Optimized their cost structure to fit within Google Cloud Marketplace metrics
• Widened industry exposure for an AI approach to cybersecurity via co-marketing events