Deeper Dive with Lacework’s New Channel Chief

This week, cloud security provider Lacework announced the hiring of Splunk veteran Brian Lanigan as its new vice president of worldwide channels and alliances. He’ll help expand the Lacework partner program to include new and more diverse partners. MSPs, GSIs, ISVs and CSPs are crucial to Lacework’s continued growth.

In a Q&A, Lanigan talks about what partners can expect from him in the coming months.

Channel Futures: Why did you want to take this role with Lacework?

Brian Lanigan: I’m joining Lacework at a similar time in its trajectory to when I joined Splunk. What I loved about that role, and what I’m looking forward to getting back to at Lacework, was building a partner ecosystem from the early days that addresses a key need in an industry.

CF: How will your previous experience with Splunk come into play in this new role?

BL: We started tracking this entire cloud security market at Splunk a few years ago, so I was already familiar with the space before joining Lacework. When I look at the last two years specifically, with the acceleration to the cloud with the pandemic, I started noticing that DevOps and security teams were needing to address the growing complexity and scale of cloud infrastructures. And in order for organizations to scale quickly and securely, the DevOps Team and the security teams needed to develop a better together approach in order to deliver business outcomes. Additionally, my experience with the security partner ecosystem at large has set me up for this role. All of the partners I’ve worked with and will work with in the future are now moving to a cloud-centric model. I also have a lot of experience building partner ecosystems in both domestic and international markets, which is essential as Lacework expands at exponential rates.

CF: What’s your take on Laceworks’ current channel strategy and partner program? Any changes needed?

BL: When I initially looked at the partner program, I really admired how forward-thinking Lacework was in not designing a program that’s one-size-fits-all. Partners provide different capabilities; some of them want technical skill sets and others want to build services on top of Lacework’s platform. The program is designed with that flexibility in mind. And all of this intersects with how we go to market with our CSPs.

I just joined Lacework, so I’m focused now on building a deep understanding of the program and how it is working for partners. I know that as of a few quarters ago, approximately 60% of our sales were influenced by partners, which is a great sign that something is working within the organization. Our leadership team is committed to partners being the way a company can grow profitably and I’m here to help make that happen.

CF: What’s at the top of your to-do list?

BL: The first 90 days will be critical. Joining a new organization, especially as a leader, requires a lot of analysis of what’s happening on the ground and then a quick transition to execution. I’m going to spend time absorbing how the partner program is currently functioning, including the rollout of the new program launched just a couple months ago. And then we will take a data-driven approach to determining how we’ll continue to roll that program out to new partners as we expand. When you’re in a hyper state of growth, you’re going to have a lot of potential new partners streaming in. It’s important to remember to invest with the partners that are going to invest in you.