28 01732 759725 60 seconds with… Matthew Swindail, Strategy & Alliances Manager, Exertis Enterprise CyberSecurity UK & Europe Technology Reseller (TR): Why should resellers and MSPs partner with Exertis Enterprise? Matthew Swindail (MS): With over 30 years’ experience in cybersecurity, trained engineers offering free of charge 8x5 support and dedicated account managers and alliance managers, we have set up the business to support everyone from one-person organisations to LVARs (large value added resellers) and beyond. I truly believe that as a distributor we are different. TR: What new products and services can you offer MSPs? MS: We have recently taken on the VCSP (Veeam Cloud & Service Provider) business arm of Veeam, which is really exciting and takes us in a new direction with the vendor. We are also adding ObjectFirst to our portfolio making us the only UK distributor to offer the complete bundle of Veeam, Object First and Flowmon. TR: What are your business highlights of the year so far? MS: The relaunch of our monthly billing platform – Exertis Flex ([email protected]); becoming a VCSP aggregator for Veeam; and, with Exertis Fortress, launching our own SOC, based in Basingstoke. TR: What should resellers be looking to capitalise on in the next few years? MS: We hear buzzwords all the time, but MDR, XDR and NDR are solutions and infrastructures I feel all resellers should be looking to supply to their partners. Whether you have the internal capabilities or not, Exertis Cybersecurity can help you on your journey. TR: Can we expect anything new from Exertis Cybersecurity in the remaining months of 2024? MS: My plan is to change our go-to-market execution. I am keen for us to continue to add value while being different and I am committed to rewarding our supportive and loyal partners. I hope to see a start by the end of the year. TR: What type of support do you provide new channel partners? MS: Pre-sales, scoping, installations, free of charge 8x5 support, 24/7x365 support in our NOC & SOC. We also offer accredited training for our vendors, post-sales support for our vendors, dedicated account management, and all our vendors are supported by their own internal alliance manager, meaning each partner gets the best possible service from end to end. TR: What’s currently having the greatest impact on your business? MS: A bit of a cliché, but the cost-of-living crisis affects not only households but businesses as well. We see and hear this a lot. Offering our cybersecurity stack across our monthly billing platform Exertis Flex allows all our partners and their customers to have a unified billing run, freeing up their cashflow, whilst securing themselves with our trusted vendors. TR: Where do you see the next big opportunity for MSPs/resellers? MS: As I mentioned earlier, more and more end users now require more complex security solutions, everything from NDR, MDR and XDR to full SOC level suites, and that’s where I see the market heading. TR: How should companies protect themselves from events like the CrowdStrike outage in July? MS: No vendor is immune to what happened with CrowdStrike. As a community we should learn from what happened, but I don’t feel it was something an MSP could have protected themselves from. One thing that would help are Government standards, as mentioned in the recent King’s speech. In our European Cybersecurity offices, we talk about the NIS2 Directive & DORA but these standards aren’t replicated in the UK. I feel that clouds what is required by a reseller/end user. TR: What’s the best business advice you’ve been given? MS: ‘Embrace the uncomfortable’. At the beginning of my career, I would never have imagined having the confidence or the ability to stand up in front of a crowd or take part in panel discussions. But that’s what I do! TR: Have you ever had any embarrassing moments at work? MS: One winter, I went home after work and fell asleep on my bed. I woke up at 7.55, leapt out of bed, jumped in the car and drove to the office, only to realise when I arrived that I’d woken up at 19.55. I’d only been asleep for 40 minutes. TR: What is your favourite quote and why? MS: ‘Why do we fall? So we learn to pick ourselves up again.’ No matter what life throws at you, take the hits but get back up and learn from them. TR: What’s on your playlist at the moment? MS: I recently saw the Eagles with my Grandad and Dad, and I’m now learning their songs. Better late than never! TR: What’s the most used app on your phone and why? MS: X (formerly Twitter). I am a big football fan and it’s usually the best place for interactions. TR: How do you like to spend your spare time? MS: With the ones closest to me. That and going to watch Port Vale, home and away, just to add more stress to my life! Exertis Cybersecurity is a division of Exertis Enterprise, an enterprise technology distributor partnered with some of world’s leading server, storage, networking and cybersecurity vendors. Its cybersecurity portfolio covers everything from network security, endpoint security, cloud security, remote access and disaster recovery through to data governance & compliance – all backed by professional services including pre- and post-sales support, managed services and vendor-accredited training. At the start of September, Exertis Enterprise expanded its services offering with Fortress, a fully managed threat detection and response service delivered from a new Security Operations Centre (SOC) in Basingstoke. www.exertisenterprise.com Matthew Swindail
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