What is our primary use case?
I use the solution in my company on the endpoint, and then we're using it on our point of sales in all of our franchisees' locations, and then we have about seven brands. We are deploying a new point. We are using it as our main endpoint protection. We are trying to monitor all activities happening at our franchisees' locations proactively, allowing us to realize we have to be very proactive. Most of the time, our franchisees are not as proactive. The changes in PCI DSS 4.0 are forcing everyone to be a little bit more proactive, so we have to educate and be a little more involved to ensure we have solutions in place because we are the ones who select the point of sale system. We often tell the franchisee what point of sale to use in the back end, and because of that, they feel like that is our company's responsibility, but it is really a shared responsibility. Even though we make that selection and buy the tool, they also own the responsibility of making sure they protect the brand. We decided to take that out of their hands and decide their endpoint solution. We made it a part of the package, and it got deployed, but that allows us to be proactive in protecting our brands. If they do anything that actually puts our brands in jeopardy, we are able to proactively respond and stay on top of that to avoid breaches and things of that nature.
What is most valuable?
The most valuable features of the solution stem from the fact that we can track all of it in one place across all those different locations. Because it's cloud-based and reports up to the cloud, we also have access to the back end, and an incident response team monitors all incidents. We also have an escalation process in place. From my perspective, there are other pieces of CrowdStrike that the security architect team uses as well, but I don't get involved with those as much. I usually just wait for the end results or the notification if I need to get involved if there is an incident.
What needs improvement?
The tool's customer service team’s inability to respond to our company’s queries is an area where improvements are needed.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using CrowdStrike Falcon Complete MDR for a year.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
The number of endpoints we deal with is changing, but ultimately, there will probably be at least 12,000 endpoints. It is a two-year project, so we are only tagging it by the end of the year for our new point of sale. Currently, the endpoints are only on one point of sale we use. We have an initiative to push out our new point of sale, and the solution is included. As we standardize one point of sale, we will cover that piece of it, but again, it is probably going to be about 12,000 endpoints.
How are customer service and support?
I would say the tool's customer service has been able to respond and give us the answers that we needed. I rate the technical support an eight out of ten.
How would you rate customer service and support?
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
Before CrowdStrike, we had Cylance.
We switched from Cylance to CrowdStrike because, and I just want to make sure, it probably had more to do with the cloud side of things because we also use CrowdStrike for our cloud or AWS environment. We needed a platform that allowed us to unify the management piece of it, so we switched over to CrowdStrike, which manages the endpoint side. We also use that on our AWS business side to manage that whole infrastructure.
How was the initial setup?
The product's initial setup phase was very straightforward.
I was involved in the setup phase with the original part when a testing piece happened at the store level. I was involved in making sure that the infrastructure could operate and function with that endpoint protection piece. The part that I was involved with came with a lot of requests for firewall changes.
The implementation strategy was able to when a point of sale is being pushed or updated or upgraded to the franchisees, that it is part of a package or image, the agents were automatically installed. It rolled into the store deployment piece of it, and that was probably the biggest strategy, making sure that it was a part of the actual roll out for the point of sale system.
The solution was deployed with an internal team of 15 people, counting the third-party support teams we outsource with, which provided the first-level support for the tool. Even after we deploy the tool, it is all about making sure those guys are able to respond and things of that nature. A lot of times, infrastructure had to be standardized, but along with that, standardization allowed us to be able to the point of sale, include the endpoint solution, and move forward.
What was our ROI?
Speaking about ROI, we have seen what a breach can cost us. With a couple of years behind us, we have seen where breaches cost us. Not having a solution that allows us to be proactive is one of the main reasons the solution is being deployed. We are seeing how to take more than 6,000 locations across the US and stay on top of incidents and security changes happening daily. We know that the return is huge just from being proactive. When there are incidents, the fact that we can control and manage it across all of our brands is probably one of the biggest wins for us because before, we had different points of sale, but not all of them had endpoint protection, so we were very vulnerable.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
I know for a fact we evaluated other options. I have no clue about what they are or were because I wasn't one of the evaluators. Andy and Willy evaluated the different options, and they came back with CrowdStrike. We had started deploying CrowdStrike even before Andy joined the team, and he took it over with Willy and added more features to it.
What other advice do I have?
The good part about it for us is that one of the big questions is that I think CrowdStrike is definitely one of the leaders, and we love the product. One of our big challenges was trying to figure out the cost around it and how to take that cost and push it back to our franchisee. I think we are starting to figure that piece out. One of the good things about the CrowdStrike Falcon Complete MDR on the endpoints side of it is that we were looking for something that supported Windows, iOS, Android, and Linux. I think they check all the boxes. I think I'm finalizing what we will be able to do on the Android side of things and the iOS side of things. I think we are at a point where we're getting to a point with CrowdStrike where we know what the cost is, and we know that it's a viable solution. It is about getting the numbers together to see if it makes sense from a financial standpoint.
I know that the team was working on getting better numbers, and they did. I think that allowed us to be able to move forward on working on the numbers to present to our executive team. I got to speak with them this morning, and I know that they got the numbers, so I think we have a good place, to be honest with you, as far as numbers now.
The maintenance part is good. The main thing is that we are in the retail sector, and somebody at the end of the day on the retail side will manage things when a point of sale goes up or down, making sure that everything is in place. There is somebody on the security side who manages everything and has to address when an endpoint is being removed or is offline, so there are two people on it. There is also a 24-hour support team, whether that be our offshore team, which is mostly going to be an offshore team that will respond to issues. But again, you have a security team that is going to monitor the endpoints and know when they are offline, kick off tickets, and push to the support team to make them look into it. Somebody on the retail team should be able to tell us that a particular solution has been upgraded, so there is always a little checking and balancing when it comes to things on top of what is happening on the point-of-sale side of things on the payment side of things.
The tool offered us the flexibility that we needed. The biggest thing is that it allows us to work because we are moving to a franchisee or hospitality solution or platform solution, especially for security-conscious people. In my industry, it has not always been as security-conscious. Security was only pulled on an as-needed basis. We are changing the atmosphere. We are changing that and being more proactive. That is why some of our processes take us a minute. We are not just in all locations, making things a little more challenging. You have to push and make sure the cost doesn't disrupt what a franchisee has going on. You have to look at it from a holistic standpoint. The solution has allowed us to do that and gradually push the security needs that we need to have in place.
I rate the tool a nine out of ten.