Cisco's Security Channels Leader For The Americas Departs

Faraz Siraj

Faraz Siraj, who was head of the Americas Security Channels at Cisco Systems, has left the company to join security startup ThreatQuotient.

Siraj joined ThreatQuotient Tuesday as director of channels for its new Threat Alliance Program. Siraj previously was a top channel sales executive at Sourcefire, which Cisco acquired in 2013 for $2.7 billion.

Cisco did not respond to a request for comment by press time.

San Jose, Calif.-based Cisco has unergone a massive executive overhaul over the past 12 months since Chuck Robbins replaced John Chambers as CEO last May. Most recently, Cisco's leading technologist, Pankaj Patel, said he would be leaving after 20 years at the company.

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Kent MacDonald, vice president of converged infrastructure and network services at Long View Systems, a Calgary, Alberta-based solution provider and Cisco Gold partner, said the executive transition hasn't impacted channel sales due to Cisco's "deep bench" of talent.

"If you look across the business units, there's a plethora of talent in every team," said MacDonald. "[Siraj's departure] doesn't give me pause for concern about Cisco's direction as an organization or their commitment, and [they] are still moving forward under Chuck's leadership."

MacDonald said Cisco's security push at Partner Summit 2016 in March is resonating in the market and the networking giant is following through on its pledge to better align Cisco's internal sales organization with channel partners.

"It's quite clear that [Cisco's] sales team [is] on the same page as us; our meetings [were] very much aligned when we went back to work the Monday after Partner Summit," said MacDonald. "We've been seeing more security traction in Cisco."

Cisco executives have touted the acquisition of Sourcefire as a key strategic move that has significantly bolstered its security portfolio.

In an interview in January, Cisco CEO Robbins said, "We have taken the Sourcefire technology that we bought a couple of years ago, and our teams have done a phenomenal job of integrating that capability throughout every element of the network and they've really created an architecture, and that's been the secret to our success. It has created some challenges for some of our competitors."

Reston Va.-based ThreatQuotient provides a threat intelligence platform. Siraj is now responsible for driving the vendor's channel program and growing its channel community and strategic alliances.

"ThreatQuotient has done an excellent job distinguishing itself from the competition," said Siraj, in a statement. "I look forward to leading this initiative and ushering in a new way of partnering that will provide the alliances needed to support the phenomenal growth path the management team has established.’

ThreatQuotient said it is committed to being a 100 percent channel company, according to a release.