Randy Watkins to Lead Strategic Technology Initiatives for Fast-Growing Leader in MDR Services, Cybersecurity Solutions, and Threat Intelligence
Plano, TX – November 9, 2018 – CRITICALSTART, a leading provider of cybersecurity solutions, today announced it has appointed Randy Watkins as Chief Technology Officer (CTO), effective immediately. In this role, Watkins will be responsible for designing and executing the company’s strategic technology initiatives, which includes defining the strategy and direction of CRITICALSTART’s Managed Detection and Response (MDR) services delivered by the Zero-Trust Analytics Platform (ZTAP).
Previously, Watkins served as CRITICALSTART’s Director of Security Architecture, where he set the strategy for emerging vendor technologies, created the Defendable Network reference architecture, and set product direction for the company’s internally-developed Security Orchestration Automation and Response platform. Watkins was employee number five when he joined CRITICALSTART in 2012.
Watkins is a respected author and speaker on cybersecurity trends and is well-versed in applying security technologies, in practical and meaningful ways, to improve vulnerability management and security infrastructure for enterprise customers. He holds numerous security certifications in data analysis, data science, computer science, and leadership. Watkins earned a bachelor’s degree in Information Systems Security and an associate degree in Computer Networking Systems, both from ITT Technical Institute.
“Randy has excelled in every position since starting at the company,” said Rob Davis, CEO at CRITICALSTART. “He has keen insight into the functionality required by solution offerings to deliver customer value. His new focus will speed the development of features and integrations required to support the fastest growing MDR service in North America.”
CRITICALSTART offers a powerful combination of professional services, strategic product fulfillment, and MDR services, making it well positioned to protect important data and customer brands. The company increased year-over-year (YoY) revenue 87 percent in the first seven months of 2018, and its MDR business has grown 300 percent YTD in 2018 when compared to all of 2017.
About CRITICALSTART
CRITICALSTART is the fastest-growing cybersecurity integrator in North America. Our mission is simple: protect our customers’ brands and reduce their business risk. We do this for organizations of all sizes through our award-winning portfolio of end-to-end security services – from security-readiness assessments using our proven framework, the Defendable Network, to the delivery of managed security services, professional services, and product fulfillment. CRITICALSTART has achieved the Service Organization Control (SOC) 2 Type II compliance certification and was recently named a CRN® 2018 Triple Crown Winner. Visit www.criticalstart.com for more information.
