Stopping the Security Breach: A Conversation with Daniel Bernard of CrowdStrike

Jörg Wassink: Daniel, thank you for being here. Would you mind introducing yourself?

Daniel Bernard: Hi, I'm Daniel Bernard, Chief Business Officer at CrowdStrike.

Jörg Wassink: When you look at today's cybersecurity landscape, what makes Europe uniquely challenging, but also uniquely important, for organizations and security leaders like you?

Daniel Bernard: Europe presents a unique environment for both defenders and adversaries. There are many national and fragmented interests here, and a lot of regulations. Those regulations are good for protecting citizens, but they can also create openings for adversaries to operate in ways that circumvent them. Adversaries don't follow the rules. While rules can sometimes constrain defenders, they are ultimately there to protect citizens.

It's also worth remembering that rules and regulations can be exploited by adversaries to build more effective software and more effective attacks that work around them. More broadly, there's a lot of nation-state activities across the EU. Geopolitical tensions create competing interests, and nation states in particular take advantage of those differences.

I see Europe as a combination of unique regulations, national interests, and geopolitical tension, all of which create an environment that's very attractive for adversary activity.

Jörg Wassink: Companies are investing heavily in cybersecurity, with a lot of spending going into it. Still, many organizations struggle with complexity. Where do you see the biggest gaps today?

Daniel Bernard: Despite all the investment, one of the key issues is still what happens between the keyboard and the screen: the person. Often operators, people, and now agents don't know how to run a cybersecurity program effectively. That creates a huge knowledge gap. You can buy all the right products, but if you don't use them properly, you won't get the right outcome, which is stopping the breach.

First, there's often a gap between the keyboard and the screen. Second, many organizations buy the wrong products. Cybersecurity today has over five thousand vendors offering different technologies, and it's difficult for buyers to know which ones actually work and which only claim to. You don't want a leaky lifeboat. You need real, best-in-class technology that stops breaches.

Third, many organizations struggle to configure what they have and to extract value from it. These things are all connected. You need to buy the right technology, but you also need the right operating plan for using it, the right KPIs, and the right monitoring and management, just as you would for any profit-generating part of the business. Cybersecurity is a business, and as your business accelerates, your cybersecurity program has to accelerate too. You need to keep revising the KPIs and improving continuously.

What I've seen is that Falcon has become the operating system of the SOC. When you use the right operating system and operate it properly and when you have the right partners to guide you or even operate it for you, you get the right result. That's certainly what we see between CrowdStrike and Serviceware.

Jörg Wassink: That's exactly where I wanted to go next. That's where partners come in, right?

Daniel Bernard: Yes.

Jörg Wassink: CrowdStrike has built a strong partner ecosystem in Europe. Why are regional partners more critical than ever for protecting customers and strengthening cybersecurity?

Daniel Bernard: Cybersecurity has become extremely global, but in reality, it has also become extremely local. Our regional partners matter more than ever because their knowledge is highly local and highly relevant to the customer.

Look at what AI has done. Information has become commoditized and democratized — suddenly everyone is a cybersecurity expert. People who couldn't spell cybersecurity three weeks ago are now telling the CISO how to do their job. What has not been commoditized, and won't be, is knowledge and experience.

That's what we see in our regional partners: knowledge, experience, and a deep understanding of the customer. And the better you know the customer, the better you can improve the cybersecurity program. We have a saying: know the adversary to know them and stop them.

The same applies to defenders. You need to know your defenders, your weak spots, and your strengths. Independent expertise, advisory services, and the knowledge of partners like Serviceware help a company be at its very best when it comes to running a strong cybersecurity program.

Jörg Wassink: Serviceware was recently recognized at the CrowdStrike event as Europe Regional Growth Partner of the Year, fantastic news for us, and we're really pleased about it. What stood out to you most about Serviceware's contribution and growth?

Daniel Bernard: First, congratulations to Serviceware on being recognized as our Regional Growth Partner of the Year across all of Europe.

We work with thousands of partners in Europe, and what makes Serviceware stand out is the focus, the strategy, and the talent your team has brought to CrowdStrike. You focus on CrowdStrike, and you see great results with customers. We get great customer feedback, and we get great results.

Closing new logos, taking existing customers and introducing them to Falcon Flex. These are all investments Serviceware has made. The numbers we see in your business are in a league of their own. You're growing, we're growing, the customer is happy, and we're stopping the breach. Congratulations on the award.

Jörg Wassink: To build on that, how do CrowdStrike and Serviceware complement each other in helping customers modernize and streamline their security operations?

Daniel Bernard: We're a technology company, and we succeed in the market when we work with great partners. We bring the technology, while Serviceware brings all the expertise, the implementation, the delivery, and the deep relationship with the customer.

Of course we value strong customer relationships too, but from a security perspective we provide the technology platform and act as a technology advisor. Technology is only part of the solution; the other part is implementation and strategy.

We need Serviceware to bring us to the customer, help implement our technology, advise on the right technologies for that customer, and make sure the customer moves from idea to outcome on our platform.

Jörg Wassink: AI is transforming both cyberattacks and cyber defense. How do you see it reshaping security operations over the next three to five years?

Daniel Bernard: I see AI reshaping security operations in several fundamental ways.

First, the relationship between people and technology will change, because a new workforce is emerging: the agentic workforce. It will amplify human work and help us get much more out of our technologies. Instead of working eight hours a day, these systems work all the time — no weekends, no holidays. That unlocks a lot of productivity. The relationship between human workers, agentic workers, and technology is one major area of change.

Second, the amount of data produced in the world is exploding. Look at the adoption of Claude Code and Codex. It's remarkable, and behind that adoption are agents. For every human worker, statistics suggest that a person will be partnered with around ninety agents within the next eighteen to twenty months. That's a profound productivity shift, and it reflects the next industrial or technological revolution.

It also means we'll need to understand, classify, and secure an enormous amount of data. That's the second big change.

Third, we'll see two different types of companies: those that are AI-native and AI beneficiaries, whose businesses grow because of AI and become even more relevant than before — and a whole class of technologies that get left behind because they don't benefit from AI in this new world. We'll see a major clearing in the market, a kind of reset in terms of which companies win, and which belong to a different era.

What excites me is that CrowdStrike is clearly leading the pack when it comes to embracing AI, using AI, and — most importantly — securing AI. We're a beneficiary of this next major technology wave unfolding around us.

Jörg Wassink: Final question: Looking ahead, what would success look like for you in the partnership between CrowdStrike and Serviceware across Europe over the next few years?

Daniel Bernard: Success with Serviceware means continuing to build education and knowledge around our platform. The Serviceware team is extremely well-versed in CrowdStrike. Serviceware has several specialists on staff who are experts in their fields, and the company has deep expertise in CrowdStrike.

But continuing education matters, because education is where it starts. It's what enables you to be a trusted advisor for customers in the region. And then it's about turning that education into outcomes and action.

There are a couple of hundred people in the room right across the hall here at your event, and not all of them are CrowdStrike customers yet. So, there's a lot of markets left for all of us to win together — for Serviceware to bring CrowdStrike to customers, and for us to bring customers to you. That's what a great partnership looks like. Success means every one of your customers becomes a CrowdStrike customer.

Jörg Wassink: Perfect final statement. Thank you, Daniel.