Justin Crotty Joins Exclusive Networks North America

We spoke with newly appointed Justin Crotty and North American President of Exclusive Networks Jason Beal ahead of the company’s announcement of Crotty’s appointment.

Crotty joins as Exclusive Networks builds stronger US presence in security channel

Most of Crotty’s career has been in the IT channel and focused on a variety of roles across sales and services. Now, Crotty will hold two roles: as both vice president of services for Exclusive Networks North America, and as general manager of Cloudrise.

Cloudrise is an arm of Exclusive Networks, which delivers a range of services for MSPs and MSSPs, including managed and professional services for leading Security Access Service Edge (SASE) environments, Data Security Posture Management (DSPM), and Cloud Native Application Protection Platform (CNAPP) solutions.

“I’ve known Jason for around 25 years, and Exclusive is a fast-growing distributor focused on cybersecurity at a time when security is more complex than ever,” Crotty said. “My personal approach has always been partner-centric, and my DNA and background is here. I’m excited to join this team at a time of growth like this.”

Beal, who himself has been at Exclusive Networks for under a year, says hiring Crotty was an easy choice.

“As we grow, we need to strengthen our leadership team, and since I started here around 7 months ago, that’s been my focus,” Beal said. “You could not have asked for a better fit for this role than Justin, and we’re very excited to have him join our team.”

Both leaders also point to the market opportunities still ahead for Exclusive Networks within the US and North American markets as an exciting time for the company. Exclusive Networks is well-known in other markets, especially in Europe, but Crotty thinks the brand has a long way to go in terms of awareness and share in North America.

How past experiences with partner enablement inform Crotty’s vision for Cloudrise

Exclusive Networks is a services and solutions aggregator focused exclusively on cybersecurity. Crotty views the company as an enabler for channel partners who are compelled to adopt more strategic approaches to meeting their clients’ needs.

Crotty points to his time at Ingram Micro, where, alongside Beal and other leaders, he led enablement programs and pathways for partners to shift into managed services and recurring revenue. Now, he sees similar opportunities as partners wrangle with how to support clients with fewer resources.

“Partners are struggling with the same sort of transition now as they were back then. Partners are seeing a more complex security landscape than ever before, and their clients are demanding more, as they face skills shortages and struggle to get the resources they need,” Crotty said. “We’re in a good position to understand the partner perspective and bring forth the capabilities they need so they can serve their clients.” 

Beal says that Exclusive Networks and Cloudrise are focused on enabling channel partners to build and strengthen their practices.

“We talk a lot internally about partner empathy, and understanding what partners are facing right now,” Beal said. “The demands on partners are only increasing, as cyber gets more complex and vendors expect their partners to sell more across the full breadth of solutions. And, they’re being asked all of this as they are resource-constrained and trying to determine how to add more services and manage the full lifecycle of technology.”

“We want to help those partners succeed and grow. They can lean on a services aggregator like Exclusive, and we can augment and complement the services they provide,” Beal continued.

SASE, DPSM, and the other market trends partners need to address

Beal points to SASE and DPSM as two of the top security services that partners need to find a way to provide to their clients.

“If you look at where investments are focused right now, it’s definitely going to SASE and DPSM. Partners need to be able to deliver these services, and we feel we can help them build practices through our leading SASE delivery and the capabilities our vendors bring forward,” Beal said.

“Our hope is that partners view us as a partner to them, and they see us as a resource that helps them deliver what their customers are likely already asking for,” Crotty added.

Looking forward, as Crotty begins his role and the company continues to pursue growth, both leaders say their sights are set on deepening relationships with existing partners and supporting new ones as well.

“My priorities are fairly straightforward: we want to drive the expansion of our services into new and existing partners, and evolve the services portfolio to align with the market,” Crotty said. “All vendors want to see net new logos and accelerated time to value from their partners, and we can support those partners in meeting their goals with customers.”

“There’s still a lot of need in the market to demystify SASE for partners and for end customers,” Beal added. “We want to do that and educate the market so that we can then enable partners to take advantage of the capabilities available to them in supporting their clients.”