Anomali in APJ: ‘we couldn’t do this without the channel’

Stree Naidu, senior vice president and general manager in Asia Pacific and Japan (APJ) for cyber security vendor Anomali, is in the process of building out the company’s presence in the local region, and engaging the channel is his number one priority.

Founded in 2013 and based in California, Anomali is known for its threat intelligence and analysis offerings, including its ThreatStream platform.

Naidu came to the role earlier this year from Radware, where had been APJ vice president for close to two years, but his appointment was overshadowed somewhat when the company named former SecureAuth chairman and CEO Ahmed Rubaie as its new CEO in March.  

It probably didn’t matter. Anomali may not be an immediately recognisable name in the local region, but Naidu’s name is bound to be known by plenty of partners in APJ.

Not only did he spend over one-and-a-half years heading up Radware in the region, he was also APJ vice president at Cato Networks for over three years and, before that, he was Imperva’s APJ vice president, a role he held for more than six years.  

Given this track record, which has seen him lead channel and sales activities for multiple vendors, building up their respective profiles and businesses in the region, it should come as little surprise that the channel is set to play a big part in Naidu’s plans for his new employer and its expansion efforts in APJ.

“Channel is important to the CEO, but it is really important to me,” Naidu told Channel Asia. “It’s my number one priority. I want to make sure local partners, managed security services providers (MSSPs), resellers and others are representing us.

“We couldn’t do this without the channel. A lot of vendors realise this, and they do give a lot of attention to their partners. If you get that part right and build a community, every partner out there will be talking about your team and your product.

“A trusted advisor isn’t a vendor, it’s a consulting partner, an MSSP, an IT provider. If you want to crack a big account, you need a specific reseller or integrator,” he added.

At present, Naidu is particularly focused on getting traction in Australia and New Zealand, Japan, China, Hong Kong, India and Singapore. To this end, Naidu has been bulking up Anomali’s headcount across the region, along with its distributor partnerships. 

A big part of Naidu’s strategy is all about localisation of the business in each of the markets it serves, a factor greatly facilitated by the channel.  

“It’s always been about being locally present,” Naidu said. “You’ve got to have that localised taste and feel for the team, to work with local customers and partners.

“Startups often take this for granted. But I’ve learned over time, you’ve got to have local representation. It’s little things, like being able to buy in the local currency,” he added.