Zscaler and CrowdStrike have expanded their partnership. This comes shortly after Zscaler’s definitive acquisition of MDR player Red Canary. The deepened collaboration focuses on security operations and managed detection and response, with both security companies further integrating their platforms.
For CrowdStrike, the partnership provides access to Red Canary’s agentic AI functionality. These AI capabilities were a key reason behind Zscaler’s acquisition of the company. The integration is expected to strengthen CrowdStrike’s endpoint security and reduce response times.
The two companies have been working together for years due to their complementary focus. CrowdStrike focuses on endpoint security, while Zscaler offers zero-trust access as an alternative to traditional network security. This complementary nature has already led to integrations between Zscaler’s platforms and CrowdStrike Falcon Next-Gen SIEM, as CRN reported in response to the new deal.
Red Canary as a bridge between platforms
The partnership expansion follows Zscaler’s completion of the Red Canary acquisition on August 1. That $675 million deal forms the basis for this deeper integration between the Zscaler Zero Trust Exchange and CrowdStrike’s Falcon platform.
Red Canary will continue to operate under its own name as a division within Zscaler. The MDR platform can now benefit from “deep endpoint context” from CrowdStrike’s broad security ecosystem. This combination should lead to improved threat detection and faster response times for SecOps teams.
Competitive pressure in the cybersecurity landscape
The deepened collaboration comes at a time of increasing platformization within cybersecurity. Rivals such as Palo Alto Networks are investing heavily in SecOps through their Cortex offering and recently announced the acquisition of CyberArk for $25 billion.
In addition, Microsoft is betting heavily on security by leveraging its dominant position in the enterprise market. Although MDR is not a primary focus for Microsoft, the company emphasizes SecOps through Sentinel and Security Copilot.
For partners of both companies, the collaboration fits in with the growing demand for integrated security tools. We discussed this extensively last year under the heading of “platformization.” The combination should help organizations simplify the complex security landscape, where reliable data exchange between platforms is essential.