CRN Exclusive: HPE Expands Security Opportunities For Its Partners With Hexadite Distribution Alliance

After investing in the fast growing security startup Hexadite earlier this year, Hewlett Packard Enterprise is diving deeper by forming a strategic reseller partnership through which HPE channel partners can sell Hexadite's security products.

This isn't the first time in 2016 that HPE has invested millions in a startup, followed by a strategic reseller agreement. Palo Alto, Calif.-based HPE invested $10 million in object storage developer Scality earlier this year, while also forming a similar reseller agreement with the San Francisco-based storage vendor.

The new Hexadite partnership enables HPE's channel partners to boost their security portfolio to offer a more end-to-end security solution, according to Eran Barak, CEO of Boston-based Hexadite.

[Related: Report: HPE In Talks To Sell Software Division To Thoma Bravo For As Much As $8-$10B]

"This is going to be very compelling for the HPE channel," said Barak, in an interview with CRN. "The partnership will enable them to offer an end-to-end solution from detection to remediation. Hexadite will show ROI from day one."

Hexadite has experienced a whopping 900-percent growth rate in its customer base this year, according to Barak. The startup's Automated Incident Response Solution, dubbed AIRS, remediates threats and compresses weeks of work into minutes, the company says. The platform automates the incident response process that eliminates much of the manual work needed to be done by security specialists.

HPE and its channel partners can now provide customers with a solution that leverages the real-time correlation, monitoring and threat detection capabilities of HPE ArcSight, combined with the threat investigation and remediation functionality delivered through Hexadite's AIRS platform.

Channel partners will now be able to sell AIRS as a standalone product or in a joint solution with HPE products. Hexadite will be sold through both HPE's direct sales team and its channel, according to Barak.

Barak also disclosed to CRN that Hexadite is preparing to launch its own partner program within the next month and will announce several other strategic distribution partnerships in the U.S.

"We are in the process [of finalizing a] few big reseller agreements in the U.S. to officially put this entire program in place in the next month or so," said Barak.

Although the details of the new partner program have yet to be finalized, Barak said it will include discounts, rebates, training tools, marketing development funds and, in some cases, guaranteed margins.

Most of Hexadite's revenue is currently coming from direct sales, although Barak said that will shift to indirect sales within the next few years.

"The channel will be the main [revenue driver] for the company and partners will be working together with the direct sales team," said Barak.

Hexadite came out of stealth in July, 2014 with the news that it had received an initial $2.5 million seed investment. This February, HPE led an $8 million Series A funding round for Hexadite.

"With the growing volume of data and the increasing need for intelligence-driven security operations, it is critical that organizations are able to apply automation to the manual processes of investigating cyber alerts and remediating threats," said Sue Barsamian, senior vice president and general manager for HPE's Enterprise Security Products, in a statment. "We are excited to announce our go to market partnership designed to join HPE ArcSight with Hexadite AIRS to offer customers agent-free incident response through security orchestration and automation."

On the HPE side of things, it's been an interesting couple of weeks. In August, HPE entered into an agreement to acquire AGI in a $275 million all-cash deal. Then, last week, the company was reported to be in talks to sell its software division to private equity firm Thoma Bravo for a price tag as high as $8 billion to $10 billion.