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What the Rebels Taught Me About Building Alliances
To say that ThreatConnect has a “thing” for Star Wars would be putting it mildly. Whether it be our office decor, the names of our conference rooms, the themes of our t-shirts, or our blog posts, everything at ThreatConnect is viewed through certain Star Wars-colored lenses.
As Director of Technology Partnerships at ThreatConnect, the way I view my role is no exception.
When it comes time to engage with a new technology partner, or take a partner relationship to that next level, naturally I ask myself, “What would the Rebels do?”.
While that may seem ridiculous to some, there’s actually quite a lot that can be learned about managing relationships and partnerships by looking at the most famous (albeit probably not the most successful) alliance of all time – the Rebel Alliance.
Episode I: A New Purpose
To recap the Rebel Alliance for those might not be familiar (don’t worry, we don’t hold it against you), they started out as a resistance movement against the Galactic Empire. The Galactic Empire was up to no good and causing trouble all across the Galaxy. In response, groups of rebels banded together to try and stop them. The rest, as they say, is history.
I realize that might be a slight oversimplification of the situation, but for the sake of my analogy, the premise remains. It was a unified, common purpose that brought together people from all over the Galaxy which ultimately formed the Rebel Alliance.
At ThreatConnect, we may not be battling Star Destroyers or taking on the Sith (not directly anyway), but we too started out with a core purpose which has remained the same since the company’s inception.
That mission: to enable security teams to make smarter, faster decisions.
Not only is this mission what motivates our employees and what powers our Platform, but it’s also reflected in our partnerships. ThreatConnect actively works with and recruits partners that align with this core purpose. For that reason, we partner with some of the top vendors in the security industry. These partnerships allow us to expand the functionality of our Platform and allow our users to easily solve complex and unique use cases.
Episode II: Sustaining the Alliance
Whether they were destroying the first Death Star, destroying the second Death Star, or destroying the Starkiller Base (totally not another Death Star), the Rebels always had a mission. They were constantly flying off to a new place to find a thing, steal a thing, and more than likely, blow up a thing. I think we can all agree that in the Star Wars Universe, there’s no shortage of things to find, steal, or blow up. Which is part of what makes it so great! But I digress.
New missions kept the Rebels focused and united and partnerships are no different. It’s important to find new and exciting ways to keep the partnership fresh and sustain momentum over time.
Not only do we strive to work with our Partners to continually bring new and relevant marketing content to our users, but the ThreatConnect Platform is designed to be open and extensible.
We offer an Open API as well as SDKs in Python, Java, and JavaScript. These give our Partners and users the tools they need to integrate and build apps with ThreatConnect in new and exciting ways.
In addition, ThreatConnect Playbooks adds an entirely new level of flexibility to the Platform. Playbooks allow Partners and users to automate virtually any security task giving them the potential to meet an endless number of new use cases.
This flexibility in our Platform helps ensure that a partnership never go stale. As long as there’s an action out there that needs to be taken, there’s a new mission to keep momentum sustained.
Episode III: Find the Jedi
Jedi’s may not exist in real life (shhh… nobody tell my boss), but in the partner world, there are what I consider “Jedi Partners”. A Jedi Partner is a Partner that perfectly aligns with your own company’s goals and initiatives. They understand your corporate mission and offer a complementary product set and value proposition. Together, with a combined solution, companies (i.e. Rebels and Jedi) can work together to meet unique use cases in the market (i.e. save the Galaxy).
Another characteristic of a Jedi Partner is their knack for showing up at a pivotal point in time to play a heroic role. For example, the time Obi-Wan showed up to face off with Darth Vader as Luke, Leia, Han, and Chewie boarded the Millennium Falcon and escaped the Death Star. Or the time when Luke Force-projected himself at the end of The Last Jedi (spoilers!) to distract Kylo Ren while the Rebels escaped through the abandoned Rebel base on Crait. Or subsequently when the Rebels were trapped while escaping through the Rebel Base on Crait and Rey showed up to rescue them. Basically, if you’re going to be a Rebel on Crait, make sure to take a Jedi or two with you.
These types of partners and partnerships are invaluable. At ThreatConnect, we’re fortunate to work with many Jedi Partners and in turn, we think of ourselves as a Jedi Partner to many of the industry Rebels out there. Not only do these partnerships allow us to maintain our strong position in the marketplace, but they enable us to expand the functionality of our Platform while helping us improve our users’ overall security posture.
Conclusion
At ThreatConnect, we’re proud of the partnerships we’ve been able to build and sustain. We’ve come along way in realizing our core vision and a lot of that is due to our Partners and partnerships.
ThreatConnect currently has over 350 apps and integrations with some of the top vendors in the industry; and we continue to add more each day.
If you’re interested in finding out more about what apps and integrations are available for ThreatConnect, click here: /integrations/
Not yet a ThreatConnect Partner? We’d love to hear from you! For more information about our Partner Program, please fill out the form at the following link and someone from our Partnership team will promptly reach out: /partner-signup/
And remember, May the Force (of Partnerships) be With You, Always.