SAP security vendor SecurityBridge recently announced the appointment of Roman Shubiger as its new chief revenue officer. Schubiger shared his early priorities, including a commitment to global channel partners, in an interview with Channel Insider.
Schubiger joins to expand SecurityBridge globally and deepen its base in Europe
Schubiger joined the company in June, bringing over a decade of sales leadership experience in the security space. He was most recently the VP of cyber security enterprise in Europe at OpenText, and before that, led sales functions at Micro Focus.
He’s also an engineer by trade and says his technical background enabled him to see and understand how promising SecurityBridge’s technology is for the market.
“We are thrilled to welcome a seasoned cybersecurity leader of Roman’s caliber,” said Christoph Nagy, co-founder and CEO of SecurityBridge, in a statement. “His proven track record in building high-performing, cross-cultural teams makes him ideally positioned to translate our market-leading SAP security technology into heightened commercial success.”
“I’ve spent ten years in security, and I’ve seen how critical SAP is to customers, while at the same time seeing that the security capabilities don’t always match the complexity of the system,” Schubiger said. “Adversaries are always working to exploit gaps, and there is a huge opportunity that lies ahead for us to help customers.”
Schubiger outlines expansion into the North American and APAC markets as key priorities for him, as well as the opportunities presented in the Middle East to secure on-premise deployments, which are most common there. SecurityBridge already has a strong presence in Europe, partially because the European market has been quicker to adopt SAP-related security offerings.
“Compliance and regulations are really driving SAP customers to look at their operations in new ways,” Schubiger said. “There is definitely more interest in security amongst the SAP community now, and I see it in events where half the sessions are security-focused. We have a huge opportunity to grow in all regions, particularly in North America, as this becomes more important to users.”
Why Schubiger’s plans also include channel partners
Schubiger is also committed to what he calls a channel-first strategy to achieve these expansion goals. SecurityBridge already works closely with leading systems integrators, but Schubiger wants to see more of those partnerships when and where it makes sense.
“We are absolutely going to lead with a channel-first strategy and continue to build upon what we have. We are going full-throttle on the channel side as we grow,” said Schubiger.
He also noted he and the company will pursue relationships with value-added distributors, SAP specialists, and continue to support more MSSPs who offer SOC services, yet continue to struggle to gain visibility into SAP workloads. The company will also double down on partnerships with technology providers, including SAP itself and Microsoft, while building new agreements with other hyperscalers and providers when the time is right.
“We are already well on the way with a few large systems integrators, but we want to expand that cooperation with more regional and global SIs and a variety of partners through investments in events and how we build brand awareness with these providers,” Schubiger added.
Why SAP remains a complex security operation, and how SecurityBridge fills gaps
SecurityBridge’s offering promises to bridge the security gaps for organizations leveraging SAP systems throughout their operations. For Schubiger, SAP-related security presents a significant opportunity that is not yet fully leveraged in global markets.
“It’s not that SAP is not secure, it’s just that it is such a complex technology with so much legacy built in, it is difficult to keep secure with traditional tools,” Schubiger said.
The SecurityBridge platform integrates real-time threat monitoring, vulnerability management, and compliance capabilities directly into users’ SAP environments, bringing together the often disparate work of security and SAP-focused teams into one unified solution. That increased visibility for teams is central to why Schubiger thinks there is plenty of room for SecurityBridge to grow over the coming years.
In April, we spoke with SecurityBridge’s CTO, Ivan Mans, about what makes securing SAP so complex. Revisit the interview to learn more about the technology behind SecurityBridge’s success.
