How B2B Tech Services Give You the Middle Finger
Shining The Light Of Common Sense On This Overlooked Opportunity within The Cybersecurity Industry
Since when in the history of business do you abandon a larger market share in favor of a smaller one?
From 2022 to 2023 the cybersecurity big tech company Crowdstrike added 10 billion to its market cap to achieve a 50 billion market cap.
How does a large B2B cybersecurity-focused Tech Company make $50,000,000,000?
Do they sell subscriptions to the best cybersecurity SAAS tool available? Yes, but that’s not the actual product.
Do they sell unparalleled professional services? Yes, but still that’s not the product.
The real product is the perception of putting forth your best effort to secure your enterprise.
Crowdstrike Q1 FY 24 (ending APR 2023) boasts over a half billion in revenue.
According to App Economy Insights, the entirety of Crowdstrike’’s revenue is from subscriptions and professional services. The truth is that their reputation in the industry is second to none. By May of 2022, reports stated 254 of the Fortune 500 companies use Crowdstrike.
You buy from Crowdstrike because if you don’t everyone will ask why you didn’t. Boards remember the name and brand. Every org that I have worked in had Crowdstrike. The best cybersecurity guy that I met in the Marine Corps who was assigned to the red team when Red teamers in the Marine Corps were fewer than today went to work for Crowdstrike. He’s so good he knows how to uninstall McAfee (that’s the cybersecurity equivalent of sorcery). My point is that Crowdstrike attracts the best clients, and the best talent, and has dominated the market of Enterprise EDR/XDR that if you could afford them and didn’t buy your security would be in question to many professionals.
Of course, we know that there are many solutions if you do not use Crowdstrike, but it’s not about what experts know. It’s about what stakeholders think.
What About Small Businesses?
This year I noticed a shift in the Cybersecurity business model. GEN Digital, formerly Symantec and Norton LifeLock, announced this year an initiative focusing on offering cybersecurity services to small businesses through next-gen anti-virus. Around the time that we started this blog, we became resellers of the suite of small business-inclusive cybersecurity tools offered by Gen Digital. My immediate impression of Avast Next Gen Anti-virus is that it felt very reminiscent of the features I became used to in Crowdstrike Falcon Pro. Sure there are some deltas in features but in terms of coverage of critical security controls both are impressive.
Just as I was thinking that Crowdstrike would be silly to miss out on this opportunity seeing as how they already have all of the features they launched Crowdstrike Falcon Go Next Gen Anti Virus for small businesses.
This sets a standard in the industry:
B2B Cybersecurity businesses that are not Small Business inclusive are giving you the Middle Finger.