Putting Your Tools to Work: Get the Most Out of Reveal(x)

Every security company will promise to offer critical, can't-live-without tools. Yet, shelfware is pervasive in the industry. Why?

ExtraHop co-founder & chief customer officer Raja Mukerji and Michael McPherson from the professional services team sit down for an honest conversation about the challenges facing security professionals today. They share how ExtraHop's new expert guidance service, Reveal(x) Advisor can expand the reach of security teams through education, personalized analysis of what's happening on their network, and faster time to value.

Watch the video interview:

Michael McPherson: Thank you for joining me today, Raja. We're going to be talking about something that's near and dear to both of our hearts—ExtraHop's new on-demand expert guidance service, Reveal(x) Advisor.

Raja Mukerji: My pleasure.

M: Tell me a little bit about Reveal(x) Advisor and how it came to be.

R: There is a pervasive skill shortage in cybersecurity. And what we heard from customers is the need for not just training, but expert help and guidance at the point of need, a way to get their security analysts productive, as quickly as possible. Moreover, no one is looking to buy technology for its own sake—new tools must provide a step-function improvement over life before that solution in order to be even considered for purchase. At ExtraHop, we're focused on helping our customers meet their goals, all the time, every time. Reveal(x) Advisor is another way we empower our customers to focus on what matters most to them: their customers.

With Reveal(x) Advisor, subscribers receive a dedicated security advisor to provide weekly how-to guidance in topics ranging from threat investigation to fine-tuning detection alerts. Analysts can request custom reviews of detections in order to better understand impacts and recommended actions within the context of their environment.

Customers can gain insights into their critical infrastructure through security hygiene reports that reveal potential vulnerabilities and recommended actions that reduce their attack surfaces.

M: Studies have shown that up to a third of security software purchases become shelfware, or are underutilized, which results in limited or no adoption and failure to achieve the outcome or purpose of buying the technology in the first place. Tell me a little more about the adoption dilemma, its impact on customers, and how ExtraHop can help in these situations.

R: When practitioners use their tools to their fullest potential, they greatly improve their security posture. But the reasons behind their lack of adoption are seldom within their control. Instead, it's because of factors like lack of time, limited resources, multiple priorities, shortage of skills, and an ever-changing threat landscape. Our world class Customer Success team helps customers with Reveal(x) adoption and accelerating time-to-value.

M: How do they accelerate adoption and time-to-value?

R: Several ways. Resident Engineering services provide onsite Solution Architects to bring immediate technical skills to the customer IT team. The Reveal(x) Advisor service reduces the learning curve for analysts. And a program called Accelerate rapidly onboards groups of new users that may have been added as the result of a tool consolidation initiative, for example. And finally, we have several outcome-based service packages for security, network, and application teams when "do it yourself" is not an option due to time or resource constraints.

M: You mentioned outcome-based services. Can you elaborate on what you mean by that?

R: Historically when a provider delivered some type of service, they measured success starting from an internal, bottom-line perspective. Was the project delivered on-time and under budget, for example? At ExtraHop, we have incorporated Lean thinking in our service delivery to focus on outcomes that are significant to the customer. For example, has the customer reduced the amount of time it takes to resolve an investigation? Has the customer reduced the number of outages that result from infrastructure compromises? By how much has the analyst improved their productivity? We focus on the end result and provide services that help security, network, and application teams become more successful. Our bill rate is an internal operational detail, not our customer's problem.

M: This has been tremendously insightful. To close, how would you summarize ExtraHop's new Reveal(x) Advisor service?

R: On-demand insights, guidance, and expertise.

M: Thank you, Raja.

R: Thank you.