AI vendor Drata launches in APAC looking to actively recruit channel partners
Hired Daniel Ettenhofer as regional VP for APAC.
Cybersecurity and compliance automation company Drata has entered the APAC market and is actively recruiting new IT channel partners.
Drata has expanded its presence in the region, adding Australia and Asia-based companies as customers, opening a new office in Sydney, Australia, and appointing Daniel Ettenhofer as Regional Vice President of Sales to lead strategic growth initiatives.
Ettenhofer has an extensive technology background working previously with Servicely, Cohesity and New Relic.
According to Drata, this expansion builds on strong customer demand and partnerships in APAC.
They said the company will enable enterprises and high-growth companies to streamline compliance with more than 25 frameworks including support for the Essential 8 framework coming soon—automate risk management, and scale trust with customers, partners, and regulators.
Ettenhoffer told CRN Australia they are focusing on IT services organisations with deep consulting expertise and existing GRC consulting practices.
“As well as MSSPs looking to extend and enhance their outsourced GRC offerings, or build the capability for the first time,” he said.
“As a vendor, Drata offers partners attractive software margins and high services attach rates as end-customers look to continually tailor their GRC needs to combat increasing cyber threats.”
Ettenhofer said that in addition to enabling MSSPs to extend their outsourced offerings, Drata's key value proposition is in automating a lot of manual effort that is required to manage a compliance and audit program.
“For partners implementing Drata, our platform provides a huge amount of added value for their customers, reducing their risk and compliance load and delivering significant business outcomes,” he said.
“Our partners are always connected to the business value that Drata delivers in the account and helps them to create increased "stickiness" with the sale of more annuity-based products and services.”
He added, “Key customer segments include all critical infrastructure organisations - including FSI - and any cloud-enabled or tech-enabled business like fintech or healthtech.”
While Drata is relatively new to the Australian market, Ettenhofer said the majorty of their business is through the channel.
“Our ongoing strategy is to increase the proportion of our channel business,” he said.
Drata has three distinct channels: IT service providers, certified auditor network and their technology alliance with AWS.
They have appointed channel managers responsible for each of these areas: James Vouthivong, senior partner manager for resellers/MSSP; Max Da Pina, senior partner manager for Audit Alliance network; and Ryan Smith, partner manager for AWS.
Ettenhofer said Drata will continue to deepen its investment in Australia having already delivered local data centres, offices, and dedicated tech and post-sales support.
“But rather than expanding into an oversized sales and marketing team, Drata will achieve scale through partnerships with the Australian IT channel.
“Leveraging their expertise and relationships while enabling them to deliver greater customer value through Drata’s automation platform,” he ended.
Drata launched an APAC data centre in Sydney earlier this year.