Alacrinet
Optimizing Cybersecurity Strategies

In its report of Cybersecurity Workforce Study 2019, (ISC)2—the world’s largest nonprofit association of certified cybersecurity professionals—suggested that there are only 2.8 million cybersecurity professionals across 11 major economies around the world. Considering the proliferation and gravity of today’s cyberattacks, the report also pointed that the global cybersecurity workforce has to grow by almost 145 percent to withstand the impact of these grueling cyberattacks. Such a massive lack of seasoned professionals has presented a complicated situation for CIOs and CISOs who are not only constantly struggling to fill this severe cyber manpower shortage but also deal with the sheer variety and complexity of cybersecurity tools available on the market. This adversely impacts their ROI and operational efficiency compounded by the challenge of finding qualified staff to tackle the high-priority cybersecurity tasks.

No matter how difficult the situation is, companies like Alacrinet always make a difference. California-based Alacrinet—a leading cybersecurity and information technology consulting company—is moving the needle in the managed security services space through its premier partnership with IBM. “Our dedication to our clients has earned us the title of fastest growing IBM Security business partner of 2018 and 2019 as well as the IBM Excellence award of Top Regional Business Partner in North America for 2020. We continue to earn clients’ business and trust by investing in our team with on-going skill training and certifications,” says Richard Weelborg, the Executive Vice President of Alacrinet. As a security-focused business partner, Alacrinet works with enterprise clients in all industries looking to ensure a strong security posture. The company has expanded its offering to include Managed Security Services Partner (MSSP) services to better meet the needs of clients. Weelborg adds, “Our existing client relationships and professional services engagements are what led to our full service MSSP offering. We’ve worked closely with clients in many industries and the need for managed services is consistent across all of them.”

One of the critical components of Alacrinet’s managed services is “Admin as a Service” that supports clients’ in-house cybersecurity teams. Supplementing clients’ internal resources with Alacrinet’s team of highly trained security experts, this hybrid service helps them find the right skills and tools to stay ahead of the curve. To illustrate, after implementing a SIEM solution, clients often overlook the importance of continually tuning it, which leads to inefficiencies and risks. The Alacrinet team can stay involved just enough to ensure that clients’ SIEM is continually tuned to maintain optimum security.

What lies at the core of Alacrinet’s managed security services is a client-centric approach for delivering best-of-breed technology and on-going support. The company works collaboratively with clients to manage all the security information coming through their SIEM and provides a ‘single pane of glass’ portal view for key members of the client team. This enables clients to see the same information that Alacrinet’s security analysts view. The “SOC Portal view” is custom to each client and brings transparency and clarity in the entire process.

Unlike competitors who offer proprietary solutions or only work with specific products, Alacrinet is vendor agnostic and seeks to implement the right level of service for each client. However, when the client is at ground zero, the Alacrinet team of experts leads with the best of breed. Weelborg explains, “One of the first things that we would do, in a full managed services environment, is run a SIEM.

Our managed services revolve around flexibility and our ability to find the right solution, instead of simply recommending to rip and replace

IBM QRadar has been recognized for years as a leader by Gartner and has the best capability to incorporate all the disparate logs and apply cognitive analytics. It works for our clients because we can take all these different solutions, aggregate the data from their log sources, and integrate them across their environment.” What further adds to Alacrinet’s robust services is their frequent meetings and constant communication with clients to understand their upcoming business plans and specific problems. This helps Alacrinet serve better by closely listening to clients’ needs, understanding where the gaps are, and investing in the required areas.

Alacrinet is highly flexible in accommodating diverse needs of their clients. Clients can choose to completely outsource their cybersecurity operations or a portion of it to Alacrinet. What’s more, the company helps businesses find suitable, cost-effective solutions and cloud strategies that fit their environment and improve their overall security posture. “Our managed services revolve around flexibility and our ability to find the right solution, instead of simply recommending to rip and replace,” says Weelborg.

Honing such capabilities, Alacrinet has earned an impressive clientele over the years. In one instance, a client from the entertainment industry was struggling to manage their cybersecurity operations due to the lack of qualified personnel. The client made significant investment in purchasing different cybersecurity solutions and tools from multiple vendors that added to their problem. Engaging with this client, Alacrinet closely studied all the tools that they had in place, consolidated them, and helped them get rid of the redundant off-the-shelf solutions, which significantly reduced costs for the client. Alacrinet then suggested to them a managed SIEM and performed a proof of concept. However, since the client was on a tight budget, Alacrinet provided them a cloud version of the same technology and divided it up in pieces to meet their price point. Finally, the client was able to see all the traffic that was coming into their organization and what was happening to that traffic inside their environment. “It radically changed how our client looked at security and helped them operate more efficiently,” Weelborg notes.

Such a comprehensive managed service offering coupled with a strong IBM relationship has enabled Alacrinet to emerge as a trusted name in the enterprise security space. Striding ahead, the company plans to continue growing with IBM. Also, Alacrinet will work with other partners like Netskope to help clients with cloud-native solutions for protecting data in cloud applications. Being digital curators, the company listens to its clients and leading industry analysts and sort through the ever-evolving resources available in the market before choosing the most fitting and effective tools for customers. By continuing to recruit talented people and investing in a full SOC location in Houston, Alacrinet is serving its customers in the best way possible.