As cyber threats escalate in volume and complexity, vendors are increasingly adopting a collaborative, “better together” approach to security solutions. One such alliance, between CrowdStrike Inc. and Zscaler Inc., emphasizes zero-trust security as a critical component in defending against evolving attacks.

This partnership, fueled by customer demand for deeper synergy, has led to the launch of several joint initiatives over a years-long partnership. By combining their cloud-native capabilities, CrowdStrike and Zscaler are paving the way for stronger, bidirectional protection strategies that prioritize securing user data across multiple threat vectors.

CrowdStrike’s Daniel Bernard and Zscaler’s Punit Minocha discuss zero-trust security.

“We’re solving really complex problems and there’s about 4,000 different vendors in cybersecurity, which is a lot,” said Daniel Bernard (pictured, right), chief business officer of CrowdStrike. “No single vendor in security does everything. Having an open ecosystem approach where you can bring together best-of-breed [solutions] is really the right strategy … Zscaler solves different problems than CrowdStrike solves.”

Bernard and Punit Minocha (left), executive vice president of business development and corporate strategy at Zscaler, spoke with theCUBE Research’s Dave Vellante and Rebecca Knight at Fal.Con, during an exclusive broadcast on theCUBE, SiliconANGLE Media’s livestreaming studio. They discussed the advantages of zero-trust security and the Zscaler-CrowdStrike partnership. (* Disclosure below.)

CrowdStrike and Zscaler unite for zero-trust security

The Zscaler-Crowdstrike collaboration is bidirectional, emphasized Bernard, which means that the data goes back and forth between the two companies, creating a “connective tissue” for users. By consolidating their capabilities and pooling information on different customer locations, security vendors can better prepare those customers for attacks.

“We have released a context engine … we are allowing multiple partners to build on that,” said Minocha. “That allows for a more resilient, more tolerant approach. And listen, things happen in security, things happen in IT. It is our job as vendors to make sure that we are adapting and learning and build something that is fail-safe.”

One of the problems facing cybersecurity is the proliferation of vendors. CrowdStrike and Zscaler are aiming toward more consolidation, with a focus on ingesting data for CrowdStrike’s Next-Gen SIEM.

“Security does tend to be very fragmented and when it’s as fragmented as it can be, it adds complexity,” said Minocha. “When it adds complexity, there’s room for error, there’s risk stuff that happens, risk gets introduced. So there is generally a trend toward trying to consolidate that …  At the same time, there’s certain swim lanes that are very natural. And that’s where Zscaler and CrowdStrike have landed, that allow ourselves to have that open ecosystem mindset, partner with the best and go solve customers’ problems.”

Here’s the complete video interview, part of SiliconANGLE’s and theCUBE Research’s coverage of Fal.Con:

(* Disclosure: CrowdStrike Inc. sponsored this segment of theCUBE.)

Photo: SiliconANGLE