Endpoint Security
CEN’s Endpoint Security Service partnered through Crowdstrike leverages the scale of the community to engage in a preferred pricing program for all members. The program lets each member acquire a best-of-breed endpoint security service that helps reduce risk, stop threats, increase visibility, and maintain cyber insurance compliance. Three packages are available to help suit the budgetary needs of the membership and provide a pathway to heightening the cybersecurity posture at each institution.
Bundles & Features:
CEN Strongly recommends Falcon Complete as the target solution for all members. It is the most comprehensive bundle for threat remediation. The Complete Service allows for members to have CrowdStrike’s Pro-Active Threat Hunters and Complete Remediation specialists remediate threats on their behalf and will in turn provide reported threats, and the remediations that were applied. Please note there are different products and pricing for regular endpoints vs servers.
*CEN members will be quoted to fall under CEN’s customer ID (CID) in a multi-tenant system for greatest discount and visibility. Separate CIDs are available.
**Required component of the bundle, shown as anseparate line item on quotes.
***Required when server licenses are acquired, show as a separate line item on quotes.
Support Options:
The member agreement includes two support offerings direct with Crowdstrike that are centered around size of license count consumed above or below 2500 per organization. Below 2500 would receive ‘Express Support’. Organizations at or above 2500 licenses will receive ‘Essential Support’. Member-customers with less than 2,500 may purchase Essential Support, however there is a minimum charge. Support matrix is below:
Purchasing:
Orders can take place throughout the year though subscription start dates and purchasing will be aligned quarterly on July 1 / Oct 1 / Jan 1 / April 1. As well as July 31st due to hearing from customers that they cannot purchase till the fiscal year rolls over. This consolidation of purchasing activities is required to help with efficiencies towards volume / group pricing and is part of the overall agreement. Emergencies aside, all member purchases will be aligned this way.
By default, CEN members will be quoted to fall under CEN’s tenant for greatest discount and visibility. This arrangement allows for separation of data between members though provides visibility across all members enabling greater capabilities for statewide notifications of malicious activity, attack trends, remediations, etc. If you want your own customer ID separate of CEN tenant, please make sure quotes include this as a line item with applicable cost. In either scenario, members with work with Crowdstrike for setup and operations.
The preferred pricing program volume agreement with Crowdstrike authorizes two resellers for fulfillment as follows:
Jeff Levin, PubSec District Sales Manager
jeff_levin@shi.com
860.682.2954
Matt Ingram, Sales Manager | SLG | EDU | HC
matt.ingram@carahsoft.com
703.871.8598
Katherine ‘Kacie’ Gault, Government Account Representative
katherine.gault@carahsoft.com
571.622.4677
Quarterly Business Review:
CEN, as the agreement holder, will perform a quarterly business review. (QBR) to review overall performance. QBR elements include overall license consumption of products and add-ons as provides by Crowdstrike, review of any member voiced issues for discussion and/or resolution as needed, price competitive checks, and discussion of roadmap/insights into newer technologies that may make sense for addition to the agreement as time goes on. Information will be shared with the Service Management & Technical Advisory Council (SMTAC). Members are welcome to attend if desired and as requested.
FAQ:
The account manager and renewal teams can direct them to SHI or Carahsoft for the pricing in the contract.
In short, no, they cannot, SHI and Carahsoft hold contracts with the state that allow CrowdStrike to be purchased based on pre-existing Ts and C’s that they hold. Additionally due to volume based discounts with SHI and Carahsoft, they are the only partners that can provide that pricing. You can still renew with your existing VAR, however, they will not have access to the pricing afforded in the CEN agreement.
When customers look to add new modules to the CrowdStrike platform, they may receive pricing based on the state contract to co-term the new products.
CEN-CrowdStrike-Carahsoft-SHI will make sure the pricing is consistent and accurately reflects the previous sku’s on the individual quotes.
CrowdStrike’s main mission is to stop breaches, and we would never hold up protections for a member in need. Reach out to your local Account Manager’s from SHI and CrowdStrike, CC CEN, and we would take these requests on a case-by-case basis.
CEN is working on a light weight ‘affiliate’ membership so everyone can take advantage of the scale/volume agreement. There are small fees to become an affiliate to help recover costs of contract negotiation and administration, and if your organization connects to CEN they will be waived.
TO LEARN MORE:
WHY CEN?
QUALITY
CEN’s scalable, resilient network design offers an unmatched combination of performance attributes for speed, latency, reliability, and security.
VALUE
CEN’s cost recovery model provides competitive pricing, custom tailored services, and larger feature sets as compared to other for-profit ISPs.
SERVICE
CEN’s Connecticut based team backs its members with a 24/7/365 Network Operations Center (NOC) and access to senior technical staff for the most consistent, local, expert service available.