“This is a massive game changer, providing us for the first time a SOC (Security Operations Center) and high-quality security talent that is 24/7 responding to threats and managing customer cyber environments,” said Fulcrum IT Partners President Kyle Lanzinger.

By Steven Burke

Fulcrum IT Partners, the $1 billion international solution provider behemoth, is adding more security services muscle to its arsenal with the acquisition of security services pioneer Fortress Security Risk Management (SRM).

The acquisition provides Fulcrum and its 11 partner companies with a world class security services provider with a robust services portfolio backed up by its own 365 day a year, 24/7 Security Operations Center (SOC), said Fulcrum IT Partners President Kyle Lanzinger.

“This is a massive game changer, providing us for the first time a SOC and high-quality security talent that is 24/7 responding to threats and managing customer cyber environments,” said Lanzinger in an interview with CRN. “These services are going to now be available to all the Fulcrum companies and customers.”

Fulcrum is aiming to up the ante in the security services battle by teaming Fortress SRM, headquartered in Cleveland and recognized by CRN as a top 100 security provider, with AI pioneer Razor, which Fulcrum acquired earlier this year.

“We are going to add additional capabilities to Fortress by looking at how Razor can bring new AI capabilities into the SOC managed services provided by Fortress,” said Lanzinger. “We believe that by leveraging AI we can make our security services more intelligent, and more agile with the ability to respond faster to threats.”

In addition to the acquisition, Fulcrum has signed a “strategic alliance” with Fortress SRM parent MCPC, No. 189 on the 2024 CRN Solution Provider 500, to add global cybersecurity capabilities to MCPC.

“That existing MCPC relationship with Fortress will not only continue but we believe it will thrive based on the additional tools and AI capabilities we will be able to bring to MCPC customers,” said Lanzinger.

Fortress CEO Expects To Double Sales Over Next Year

Fortress CEO Andy Jones, who drove the buildout of the security services provider as a standalone company, said the “conservative” goal is to double the business over the next 12 months as part of Fulcrum IT Partners.

“Becoming part of a billion dollar organization gives us the attention and visibility that we wouldn’t otherwise have on our own,” he said. “Our portfolio of cybersecurity services outcomes are some of the best kept secrets in the industry. When you become part of a billion dollar organization all of a sudden you get to have conversations with more top midmarket and enterprise companies about what you do. Fulcrum could have acquired anyone they wanted to. They chose Fortress because of the uniqueness of our offerings and the ability to extend them into their existing client base.”

Jones, a 24-year channel veteran, said he is excited about the ability to create new offerings based on the Razor platform and Fulcrum Labs capabilities. “We are going to be able to offer a new set of offerings with security insurance information and the ability to provide managed security outcomes to larger and more diverse clients,” he said.

Jones said the Fortress cybersecurity division started as a unit within MCPC eight years ago but was spun out shortly thereafter in order to build out a full set of fully outsourced or co-managed services offerings.

The founding of the business came well before the term Managed Security Service Provider (MSSP) became fashionable. In fact, the Fortress team helped pioneer that model with its suite of services and the SOC that it built out.

“What we were driving toward was a business that would address the security services talent gap,” Jones said. “I referred to it as the cyber haves and have nots. Out of the gate the vision we had was since there was a shortage of cyber talent let’s focus on building a set of managed cybersecurity outcomes that provided the most resilient experience we could for midmarket and small enterprise.”

Feedback From Top Midmarket CIOs Was Key To Building Out The Fortress Portfolio

The services that Fortress ended up building out were based on in depth conversations with top midmarket CIO customers, said Jones. “We went out and interviewed our biggest and brightest customers, asked them what they were struggling with and that led to the services portfolio we built out including our single most popular service – Endpoint Protection Plus (which includes Fortress’ Guardian cyber hygiene service, the Overwatch managed monitoring service and a managed EDR (Endpoint Detection and Response) SentinelOne service.”

Fortress refers to its cyber security managed services portfolio as “productized services” offerings. “We treat these service outcomes as a product,” said Jones. “Our managed services offerings – whether it is SOC based or professional services – the vast majority of them are consumed like a traditional product over a three or five year contract. Fulcrum was attracted to these highly consumable, highly transactable services that provides a specific outcome to midmarket and enterprise class customers regardless if it is healthcare, finance or manufacturing. They all need these same core resiliency services.”

Jones, a former Army Airborne paratrooper, said the world class Fortress SOC – “purpose built” to support midmarket and small enterprise customers- is a crown jewel. That SOC supports blue chip customers including global manufacturers, national healthcare providers and regional finance organizations. “Our largest customer has tens of thousands of employees and operates in over 100 countries,” he said.

Besides its own highly specialized sales force, Fortress has built out a robust business through a channel network that includes MSPs, law firms, insurance brokers and CPAs that help clients manage, quantify and eradicate risk, said Jones. Those channel organizations can use a white label or a referral model. “Last year over 80 percent of our new opportunities originated through that channel sales motion,” he said. “That’s not taking anything away form our direct sales organization.”

Jones said he and the whole team are “excited” about moving forward with the new sales opportunities that come with the Fulcrum acquisition. “The Fulcrum IT Partners family has some of the best channel businesses in the world whether it is Advizex, F3 Technology Partners or others,” he said. “All of the services we provide they have the opportunity to consume or sell or with us partnering with them to round out their offerings,” he said. “We are going to be helping them solve cyber security challenges for their customers.”

Jones also sees the opportunity by becoming part of Fulcrum to help businesses lower their cyber insurance premiums. “We know beyond a shadow of a doubt that our services make organizations more resilient and capable of dealing with constant and persistent cyberattacks,” he said. “Therefore they are a lower cyber insurance risk. Fulcrum brings the cyber insurance expertise and relationships to the table to help organizations quantify the risk and help underwriters and the brokers better understand the actual risk they are underwriting so we can come up with better pricing models for Fulcrum clients.”

C.R. Howdyshell, CEO of Advizex, a Fulcrum IT Partners company, which is seeing significant sales growth in both AI and cybersecurity, said he and his team are excited about bringing the highly regarded Fortress SRM security services to Advizex customers.

In fact, Advizex is already working on a deal with a large freight company that would leverage the fully managed Fortress offering, said Howdyshell.

A ‘Huge Win’ For Fulcrum And Advizex

“The Fortress acquisition is a huge win for Fulcrum and Advizex,” he said. “It expands our value proposition in the white hot cybersecurity services arena. We have already met with their team and we know we are going to get them more quality at bats in cybersecurity. Fortress has a marquis customer base and we are excited about where they can bring us to do data center AI and pay per use as a service consumption. Our entire leadership team is excited about this.”

Howdyshell said Jones’ proven leadership is also a strong addition to the management team. “He is an extremely impressive executive,” he said. “I can’t wait to get him in front of our customers.”

Reflecting on the success that Fortress has had thus far, Jones said it is gratifying to see just how far the business has come. “When we take a pause and look back at the last eight years it feels like five life times in terms of the changes we have made and the growth that we have experienced,” he said. “We created focus. We could have been great at bunch of stuff. I wanted to be brilliant at a few things. We have exceeded my expectations. Now that we are going to be part of a larger international organization that has the ability to help us take these services offerings to a larger market to more clients faster literally the sky is the limit.”

Lanzinger, for his part, said he is “incredibly confident” in Fulcrum IT Partners ability to drive sales growth with high value solutions to customers with Fortress as part of its portfolio. “Our organic growth and synergy is really incredible going into 2025,” he said. “At the same time, we have a more compelling story than ever for future acquisitions given our broader portfolio and the $1 billion channel behind it.”

As for future acquisitions. Lanzinger expects Fulcrum to make an additional one or two deals by the end of the year. “AI and security are certainly the most important areas,” he said. “It’s all about looking at what’s available in the market and acquiring the best companies and the best talent.”

Link to CRN Article