By Hannah Cho | Staff Writer
The Dallas Morning News
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Firehost
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Secure cloud provider FireHost is widening its reach, thanks to a partnership with technology giant Dell, the Richardson-based company is expected to announce Wednesday.
Under the partnership, Dell will essentially resell FireHost services by incorporating FireHost technology into Dell’s private cloud portfolio. Financial terms were not disclosed.
For FireHost, the collaboration provides access to Dell’s worldwide distribution and customer base, said Todd Gleason, FireHost’s vice president of technology.
“It will open new channels for growth for certain,” Gleason said.
The 5-year-old company specializes in industries such as health care and retail that have strict compliance requirements or manage highly sensitive data.
FireHost has been on a major growth spurt in the past several years amid increasing online threats. FireHost says it has thwarted 1 billion attacks against its customers.
To keep pace with its growth, the company has been on a hiring spree. It recently held a job fair at its headquarters.
The Dell partnership is expected to increase the need for workers, FireHost said. The company now has about 200 employees.
John Funk, who joined FireHost in September as its director of partnering, described Dell as the company’s “most pronounced” partner.
Dell has been a hardware vendor for FireHost before the partnership was taken to the next level, Gleason said.
“The real value we provide to Dell is we have a very strong battle-tested security story,” he added.
To complement its own cloud infrastructure and investment, Dell has developed a network of outside cloud vendors, said Jeremy Ford, Dell’s executive vice president of cloud services.
In other words, Dell has become a broker of cloud services because customers don’t rely on just one cloud provider. Instead, customers are using numerous cloud providers to meet varying business objectives, Ford said.
Dell was drawn to FireHost’s security expertise, which aligns with Dell’s emphasis on security and compliance, Ford said.
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