Channel partners pursuing enterprise AI projects need to establish where their security services fit alongside vendor-managed offerings.
CrowdStrike announced on Nov. 2 an expanded collaboration with Dell to integrate Falcon Guardian, Falcon Cloud Security and Falcon Next-Gen SIEM into the Dell AI Factory with NVIDIA. The integration is designed to protect AI agents, cloud workloads and enterprise security operations, while Dell is expanding its Managed Detection and Response (MDR) services to support the offering.
The move gives enterprises a more integrated approach to deploying and securing AI infrastructure.
Michael Dell, chairman and CEO of Dell Technologies, had this to say: “The Dell AI Factory with NVIDIA gives customers a validated, optimized foundation, and with CrowdStrike’s AI-native security integrated from the start, they can move forward with confidence. That’s how you give organizations a clear, trusted path from AI ambition to AI outcomes.”
How CrowdStrike is extending AI infrastructure security
Last month, CrowdStrike announced that it was partnering with Nvidia to integrate Falcon Guardian, its AI Detection and Response (AIDR) solution, into Nvidia’s OpenShell runtime.
The Nov. 2 announcement expands the companies’ existing collaboration, bringing Falcon Guardian, Falcon Cloud Security and Falcon Next-Gen SIEM to the Dell AI Factory with Nvidia.
With Falcon Guardian, enterprise agentic applications teams can get protection from attacks such as prompt injection and data exfiltration. CrowdStrike says Falcon Cloud Security helps teams identify vulnerabilities and misconfigurations, detect threats, and protect workloads across container and Kubernetes environments. With Falcon Next-Gen SIEM, enterprises can bring together first-party and third-party security data to support AI-powered threat detection.
Dell says its MDR services are expanding to “exclusively manage” these CrowdStrike capabilities, providing 24/7 monitoring, investigation and response across the AI stack.
What channel partners should check before selling
The expanded partnership could give value-added resellers (VARs) and systems integrators more scope to include security in AI infrastructure projects. However, the announcement does not specify reseller eligibility, margins or deal-registration requirements. Partners should confirm those terms before offering customers a combined infrastructure and security proposal.
Partners should also establish how the offering fits their existing Dell partner program arrangements. That includes who quotes the security licenses, owns renewals and handles support when an issue spans infrastructure and security software.
For managed service providers (MSPs) and managed security service providers (MSSPs), Dell’s MDR expansion raises questions about service responsibilities. Its reference to exclusive management needs clarification: partners should ask whether they can manage these capabilities themselves, resell Dell’s service or provide complementary services. The announcement alone does not establish that independent providers are excluded.
Before deployment, partners should document who monitors alerts, investigates incidents and authorizes containment actions. They should also establish escalation procedures, access to security telemetry and responsibility for systems outside the Dell environment. Clear boundaries can help prevent overlapping contracts or gaps in incident response.
Potential complementary work includes AI agent identity controls, approval workflows and security testing. Partners should assess these against the customer’s requirements and Dell’s contracted scope before promising additional protection.
The broader project may also require data preparation, governance and ongoing infrastructure support, areas reflected in Dell’s AI Data Platform expansion. For partners, the practical next step is to identify a customer requirement, confirm that it falls within their delivery responsibilities and build a clearly priced service around it.
Read more: Explore how CrowdStrike and CyberCert are combining Falcon protection with certification support for Australian and New Zealand SMBs, creating another potential service opportunity for MSSPs.