“MSPs are the security operations center for SMBs” – Dor Eisner, CEO and founder of Guardz

Small businesses need better cybersecurity, but most security tools were built for large companies with bigger budgets and full security teams. That leaves MSPs trying to protect dozens or even hundreds of customers with too many tools, too many consoles, and a lot of manual work behind the scenes.

That fragmentation also creates a problem for AI. Without a clear view across the customer’s environment, it is much harder to investigate threats, connect activity and take action. And even when the MSP is doing a lot of security work, the customer may not see it unless something goes wrong.

Guardz is trying to bring that work into one place. The company reported 300% year-over-year ARR growth earlier this year and expanded its partnerships with SuperOps, among others. It also recently joined the Syncro Marketplace, making the platform easier for MSPs to buy, provision, and bill.

Guardz wants to become the security operations layer for MSPs serving small businesses, covering identity, email, endpoint, cloud, and data security. But there is plenty of competition, with Huntress, Blackpoint Cyber, Coro, and Sophos all going after the same part of the MSP security stack.

ChannelE2E spoke to Guardz CEO and co-founder Dor Eisner to talk about what is driving the company’s growth, which tools MSPs can realistically replace, where partners can make money, and how Guardz plans to stand out in a crowded market.

ChannelE2e: Enterprise security was never priced or designed to come downmarket – and SMBs are the hardest hit. What role do MSPs play in closing that gap, and where does Guardz fit into that picture?

Dor Eisner: The cybersecurity market wasn't built for small businesses. Enterprise security assumes dedicated security teams, specialized expertise, and budgets that simply don't exist in the SMB market. Yet attackers increasingly target SMBs because they are easier to compromise and often serve as gateways into larger organizations.

MSPs have become the de facto security operations center for millions of small businesses. They already own the trusted IT relationship and are uniquely positioned to deliver cybersecurity as a managed service. The challenge is that traditional security products were never designed for this operating model—they require too many consoles, too much manual investigation, and too many specialized skills.

Guardz was purpose-built to solve that problem. We built an AI-native security platform specifically for MSPs, unifying identity, email, endpoints, cloud, browsers, and data into a single operational fabric. Instead of asking partners to stitch together dozens of products, Guardz continuously understands what's happening across the customer's entire workspace, investigates threats autonomously, and orchestrates a response in minutes. That allows MSPs to deliver enterprise-grade security profitably at SMB scale.

ChannelE2e: Guardz reported 300% ARR growth in 2025 after raising $56 million. What is driving that growth? Are MSPs replacing existing tools, adding Guardz to the stack, or bringing stronger security to customers that had very little in place before?

Dor Eisner: It's a combination of all three, but the biggest driver is consolidation. MSPs have reached a point where managing disconnected security products is becoming operationally unsustainable. They're looking for a platform that reduces complexity while improving outcomes.

Many partners replace multiple point solutions with Guardz. Others expand their security offerings by adding services they couldn't previously deliver profitably. And for many SMBs, Guardz represents the first time they're receiving enterprise-grade detection and response rather than basic prevention tools.

What's driving our growth isn't simply product replacement—it's enabling MSPs to build a modern cybersecurity practice with better margins, stronger customer retention, and significantly higher security maturity across their customer base.

ChannelE2e: Nearly every security vendor is promising a unified platform and fewer tools. Which products can an MSP genuinely remove after adopting Guardz, and where will it still need separate vendors?

Dor Eisner: The industry has spent years talking about platform consolidation, but many platforms are still collections of loosely integrated products.

Our approach is different. We focus on delivering one operational security layer that continuously correlates signals across identity, email, endpoints, browsers, cloud, SaaS, and data, then autonomously investigates and responds.

As a result, many MSPs consolidate standalone phishing protection, identity monitoring, SaaS posture management, security awareness, external attack surface monitoring, dark web monitoring, browser security, reporting tools, and significant portions of traditional MDR workflows into Guardz.

We also integrate best-of-breed technologies where they create the most value, such as endpoint protection and email security. We don't believe customers should compromise on the quality of core security controls. Our differentiation comes from the intelligence layer that connects them into one autonomous detection and response platform.

ChannelE2e: There's pressure for MSPs to offer stronger security without pricing themselves out of the SMB market. What does a profitable Guardz-based service look like, and where do partners make money beyond reselling licenses?

Dor Eisner: The economics have fundamentally changed. Historically, stronger security meant more analysts, more operational overhead, and lower margins. AI changes that equation.

Guardz automates investigation, prioritization, and response across every customer. Every alert is investigated automatically, nearly half are autonomously closed as benign, and the vast majority of confirmed incidents receive automated response actions before a human becomes involved.

That allows MSPs to deliver premium managed security services without scaling headcount linearly.

Beyond software margins, partners create recurring revenue through managed detection and response, security operations, compliance services, cyber insurance readiness, security assessments, incident response, executive reporting, and strategic security advisory. The platform becomes the operational foundation for a much higher-value managed security practice.

ChannelE2e: Guardz relies on SentinelOne for endpoint protection and Check Point for email security. The model also creates dependence on companies that operate in overlapping markets. What happens if one of those partnerships changes, or if those vendors start competing more directly for the same MSP customer?

Dor Eisner: We see this as a strength rather than a dependency. The future of cybersecurity won't be won by trying to build every security control internally. It will be won by intelligently connecting the best security technologies into one operational platform.

Our architecture was intentionally built to be modular. The intelligence, data model, AI investigations, automation engine, and security graph belong to Guardz. Individual security controls can evolve over time without changing the customer experience.

More importantly, our partners recognize that Guardz serves a market that most enterprise vendors don't directly address. We are purpose-built for MSPs serving SMBs. Our success expands the reach of the broader security ecosystem rather than competing with it.

ChannelE2e: Coro, Huntress, Blackpoint Cyber, Sophos and other vendors are targeting the same MSP security budget from different directions. How are you differentiating?

Dor Eisner: The market is moving beyond better detection toward better understanding and compounding knowledge graphs across MSP operations and response. 

Most vendors still operate within individual security domains. One protects endpoints. Another focuses on email. Another monitors identities. Another provides MDR.

Modern attacks don't respect those silos. Guardz was built around an identity-centric security data fabric that continuously correlates signals across the entire workspace, understands attacker behavior, reasons across attack paths, and orchestrates autonomous response.

Our goal is to be the AI-native operating system for MSP security operations to secure SMBs at scale.

That architectural difference becomes increasingly important as AI agents take on a larger role in cybersecurity. AI is only as effective as the context it receives, and context comes from understanding the entire environment—not a single product category.

ChannelE2e: Guardz is expanding through Pax8, Syncro, distributors, and channel-development partners. As that ecosystem grows, how will you protect MSP ownership of the customer and avoid channel conflict with marketplaces, vendors or other service providers?

Dor Eisner: MSPs are at the center of everything we do. Guardz was built exclusively for the channel, and our success is directly tied to the success of our partners. Every strategic decision—from product design to pricing to GTM—is made with that principle in mind.

Our distributor relationships, marketplaces, and technology partnerships are designed to help MSPs acquire customers more efficiently, deliver better security, and grow recurring revenue.

The SMB cybersecurity opportunity is enormous, and no single company will capture it alone. 

Our role is to provide the technology platform that enables MSPs to build scalable, profitable security businesses while remaining the trusted advisor to their customers. We believe the companies that empower the channel with AI native opertions will define the next generation of cybersecurity.