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Lightstream names Joe Vadakkan as Chief Revenue Officer

Salt Lake City-based Lightstream appoints transformational cybersecurity leader Joe Vadakkan to Chief Revenue Officer.

Salt Lake City, UT, February 28, 2023–Lightstream, a leader in secure digital transformation that provides fully integrated cloud, security, and network connectivity services to its global clients, recently named Joe Vadakkan as its Chief Revenue Officer.

Previously, Vadakkan served as Lightstream’s EVP of Sales and Engineering, achieving sales growth and alignment in the engineering organization to drive growth and service clients’ continuous secure digital transformation needs to meet global demands.

Vadakkan is a proven transformational cybersecurity industry leader with a track record of scaling functions for growth and profitability. In his new role as Chief Revenue Officer, Vadakkan will play a critical role in Lightstream’s global growth in the convergence business of network, cloud, and security. He will set the hyper-scale strategy and execution with the sales, brand, and distribution channels while focusing on expanding the partner ecosystem to address complex enterprise challenges.

In a joint statement, co-CEOs Rod Stout and Jim Cassell said:
Please join all of us at Lightstream in congratulating Joe Vadakkan on his appointment as Chief Revenue Officer. We are very excited to have Joe continue to provide a structure and cadence to allow Lightstream to take advantage of its highly differentiated service offerings and excellent reputation in the market.

Joe is a proven transformational cybersecurity industry leader known for his ability to scale businesses, create value for the ecosystem, and expand a customer-first sales organization.

We look forward to working alongside him to further our mission of helping customers innovate to achieve business outcomes through our solutions and services.

Vadakkan is an industry leader with over 20 years of experience in global infrastructure and security. He led the Lightstream sales and engineering teams, ensuring alignment to help Lightstream better serve its clients and grow its business. Building on his experience guiding startups, venture capital and private equity firms, and Fortune 2000 companies, Vadakkan is ready to lead the Lightstream organization as its Chief Revenue Officer.

About Lightstream

Lightstream is a fully integrated cloud, security, and network connectivity services business specializing in building and managing secure cloud environments and network solutions. They help control operating expenses, mitigate security risks, and reduce system complexity to increase operational effectiveness so organizations can focus on business growth and innovation.

Founded in 2003 and headquartered in Salt Lake City, UT, Lightstream partners with leading enterprise and SMB organizations in restaurants/hospitality, retail, fintech, healthcare and automotive to provide network and cloud solutions. Passionate about solving complex technology challenges, Lightstream also delivers fanatical customer service.

Lightstream has received multiple Palo Alto Networks Public Cloud Partner of the Year awards and is an AWS Security Competency Partner, AWS Advanced Consulting Partner, and Microsoft Cloud Platform Gold Partner with Security Competency. To learn more about Lightstream, visit our website or LinkedIn.

Media Contact

Dan Davenport / dan.davenport@lightstream.tech

 

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Lightstream recognized as a top provider in MSSP Alert’s Annual Top 250 MSSPs List

Lightstream, a fully-integrated cloud, security, and network connectivity services provider, has been named a top managed security services provider by MSSP Alert for 2022.

Salt Lake City-based Lightstream makes MSSP Alert’s annual Top 250 list as a recognized top managed security services provider.

(Salt Lake City, UT. September 23, 2022) – Lightstream, a fully-integrated cloud, security, and network connectivity services provider, has been named a top managed security services provider by MSSP Alert for 2022. Known for their fanatical customer service and superior expertise in the cloud, security and network space, Lightstream ranked among other top providers on the annual Top 250 MSSPs list that tracks quality managed security services providers.

“Our customers at Lightstream partner with us knowing our world-class expertise and team of trained professionals will put their needs first, always ensuring they’re in good hands, and always focused on outcome-based solutions” said Jim Cassell, co-CEO of Lightstream. 

“Our obsessive focus on security when building, monitoring, and managing our customers’ cloud environments and networks gives them the peace of mind they need to focus on other areas of the business. Ranking as a top managed security service provider recognizes our approach to our customers and their security.” said Rod Stout, co-CEO of Lightstream. 

MSSP Alert is a CyberRisk Alliance resource that acts as the voice for managed security service providers. It provides the resources MSSPs, security-minded MSPs, and MDR providers need to build their way to managed security success.

The Top 250 MSSPs list is based on annual recurring revenues, profitability, business growth rate, cyber professional headcount, and managed security services offered. Those recognized on the list continue to grow faster than the overall managed security market.

To view the complete list, visit www.msspalert.com. To contact Lightstream, visit our contact page.

About Lightstream

Lightstream is a fully-integrated cloud, security, and network connectivity services business, specializing in building and managing secure cloud environments and network solutions. The organization helps control operating expenses, mitigate security risks, and reduce system complexity to increase operational effectiveness so company’s can focus on business growth and innovation.

Founded in 2003 and headquartered in Salt Lake City, UT, Lightstream partners with leading enterprise and SMB organizations across the US and the globe to provide network, security and cloud solutions. They are passionate about solving complex technology challenges and delivering fanatical customer service.

Media Contact

Dan Davenport / dan.davenport@lightstream.tech

 

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LIGHTSTREAM Joins MICROSOFT INTELLIGENT SECURITY ASSOCIATION as a Managed Security Service Provider

Lightstream is a member of MISA

Salt Lake City, UT (March 29, 2022) — Lightstream,   a managed security solutions provider, is pleased to announce their membership in the Microsoft Intelligent Security Association (MISA). MISA is an ecosystem of independent software vendors and managed security service providers that have integrated their security solutions with Microsoft to better defend against a world of increasingly sophisticated, fast-moving threats.

Lightstream was nominated to MISA as a managed security service  provider (MSSP) for their Managed Detection and Response solutions with Microsoft 365  and Microsoft’s cloud security offerings. This membership strengthens Lightstream’s relationship with Microsoft and broadens the range of high value solutions that drive increased customer value.

Jim Cassel, Co-CEO of Lightstream, shares

It is a privilege to be nominated to the Microsoft Intelligent Security Association and join the top security partners as we align in our commitment to cybersecurity. The timing is paramount as organizations globally will continue to face growing cybersecurity attacks and data breaches in today’s complex environments. Lightstream has the advantage of MISA support to extend, develop and improve cutting-edge security solutions to customers globally.

“Microsoft Intelligent Security Association members leverage Microsoft’s security products to better defend against cyber security threats with identity and access management, threat protection, information protection, and security management,” says Rob Lefferts, Corporate Vice President, Microsoft Defender.

Lightstream Managed Security Services elevates customer success by rapidly improving security outcomes while meeting complex compliance requirements and continually optimizing desired business outcomes. Lightstream’s security and threat protection solution suite offers include Defender for Microsoft 365, Defender for Cloud, Defender for Endpoint, Defender for Cloud Apps, Defender for Identity and XDR capabilities. Lightstream also offers a comprehensive portfolio of cloud, endpoint, and on-premises risk mitigation solutions  focused on operational, technical, and financials risk.

To learn more, visit Microsoft Intelligent Security Association.

For information on Lightstream services and solutions, visit Lightstream.tech

About Lightstream

Lightstream provides full-service cloud, connectivity, and security solutions to enterprises worldwide with a focus on managed services for all three, as well as cloud infrastructure implementation, security, and support.

Lightstream has been named multiple times as a Palo Alto Networks Public Cloud Partner of the Year, and is an AWS Security Competency Partner, an AWS Advanced Consulting Partner, and a Microsoft Cloud Platform Gold Partner with Security Competency. Visit us at http://www.lightstream.tech or LinkedIn.

Media Contact

Daniel Davenport / dan.davenport@lightstream.tech

 

 

 

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Lightstream Names Joe Vadakkan as Global Executive Vice President for Sales and Engineering

Cloud security veteran and key strategist joins emerging service provider to drive growth

Salt Lake City, UT, January 19, 2022– Lightstream, a leader in cloud security, digital transformation and managed services, today announced the hiring of Joe Vadakkan as the company’s new executive vice president for global sales and engineering. As an IT, cloud and security thought leader, Joe will lead Lightstream’s global cloud security engineering and sales organization to drive execution of customers’ cloud security strategies and elevate their innovation at scale.

“Joe is a prominent industry veteran with extensive leadership experience in cloud security sales and innovation, having driven many of the industry’s successful, secure digital transformations,” said Lightstream Co-CEO, Jim Cassell. “I’m excited to welcome him to Lightstream’s executive team, and I look forward to working with him on our mission to enable our global customers to progressively innovate and grow effectively with Lightstream’s cloud security solutions.”

“We are very excited to have Joe join the Lightstream team,” stated Rod Stout, Co-CEO of Lightstream. “His unique ability to help customers realize value and achieve desired business outcomes is unparalleled. With his in-depth knowledge in partner distribution strategies and his success in building and growing world class organizations, Joe will help Lightstream bring continuous value to its customers and achieve our growth objectives.”

Joe has over 20 years of technical and business leadership experience in the areas of global infrastructure and security, most recently having served in a strategic services leadership role at Optiv, a pure play cybersecurity firm. Prior to that, he was responsible for building and running Optiv’s cloud security organization. He has also held leadership roles and provided strategic guidance for startups, venture capital and private equity firms and Fortune 2000 companies.

“I am very excited to join the Lightstream team and look forward to taking the company’s technology and services innovation to the next level to fuel future growth,” said Joe. “Lightstream has a great business model and a talented team that are fast movers on solving customer needs. I believe it is uniquely positioned to accelerate secure client innovation through its Lightstream Connect platform for Microsoft Azure, AWS and Google and integration with a security partner ecosystem that enables it to compete in today’s global market.”

About Lightstream

Lightstream provides full-service cloud, connectivity, and security solutions to enterprises worldwide with a focus on managed services for all three, as well as cloud infrastructure implementation, security, and support.

Lightstream has been named multiple times as a Palo Alto Networks Public Cloud Partner of the Year, and is an AWS Security Competency Partner, an AWS Advanced Consulting Partner, and a Microsoft Cloud Platform Gold Partner with Security Competency. Visit us at http://www.lightstream.tech or LinkedIn.

Media Contact

Cynthia Lawton / cynthia.lawton@lightstream.tech / 843-300-8445

 

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Lightstream Welcomes Denise Anderson as Senior Director of Partner Business Development

Salt Lake City, UT, August 24, 2021– Lightstream announced today the hiring of Denise Anderson as the company’s new Senior Director of Partner Business Development. In her role, Denise will be responsible for owning the executive partner relationships and helping to drive joint growth strategies.

“We are extremely pleased to have Denise join the Lightstream team,” stated Jim Cassell, Co-CEO of Lightstream.   “She is a natural strategist and corporate thought leader who can identify and implement innovative business development strategies and operational processes that will allow our cross-collaborative teams to achieve and exceed targets. Denise is critical to supporting the explosive growth that Lightstream is experiencing in our cloud, security, and managed services businesses.”

Denise has spent over 20 years in direct and indirect channel sales and service provider organizations.  She has spent the last 10 years primarily focused in cybersecurity channel strategy and partner-to-partner (P2P) business development. She has experience in developing, accelerating and operationalizing channel and partner Go-To-Market strategies with concrete results, including driving an average of 50% YoY growth with strategic partnerships and accelerating partner revenues in excess of $100 million.

According to Denise, “Lightstream represents an exciting opportunity for growth thanks to its combined cloud, security and network practices. Rather than simply identifying gaps, Lightstream’s lifecycle approach enables customers to trust a proven partner who can provide integrated professional, advisory and managed services across a customer’s entire IT stack. I look forward to continuing to solve some of our customers’ biggest challenges through the combined strength of our market-leading partnerships and Lightstream products and services.”

About Lightstream

Lightstream provides full-service cloud, connectivity, and security solutions to enterprises worldwide with a focus on managed services for all three, as well as cloud infrastructure implementation, security, and support.

Lightstream was named Palo Alto Networks Public Cloud Partner of the Year in 2018 and 2019, and is an AWS Security Competency Partner, an AWS Advanced Consulting Partner, and a Microsoft Cloud Platform Gold Partner with Security Competency. Visit us at http://www.lightstream.tech or LinkedIn.

Media Contact

cynthia.lawton@lightstream.tech

843-300-8445

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Lightstream Ranks 3892 on the 2021 Inc. 5000 List of the Fastest-Growing Private Companies in America

Salt Lake City, UT, August 17, 2021– Lightstream, an innovative Utah-based provider of full-service cloud, connectivity, and security solutions to enterprises worldwide with emphasis on managed services, has been named one of the fastest-growing private companies in the U.S. by Inc. Today the publication announced its annual Inc. 5000 list, the most prestigious ranking of the nation’s fastest-growing private companies, where Lightstream ranks 3892 with three-year revenue growth of 81%.

Since its inception in 2003, Lightstream has been a leader in pairing fanatical customer service with technology solutions and services, while creating strategic, financial, and security wins for customers. The company has also been recognized year-after-year by industry-leading partners through global awards and high-level certifications. Lightstream was named Palo Alto Networks Public Cloud Partner of the Year in 2018 and 2019, and is an AWS Security Competency Partner, an AWS Advanced Consulting Partner, and a Microsoft Cloud Platform Gold Partner with Security Competency.

“We are extremely grateful for this honor and the trust our clients put in us to help them achieve their desired business outcomes by managing costs, reducing unnecessary complexity, and improving efficacy,” said Co-CEO Jim Cassell. Co-CEO Rod Stout added, “We credit our extremely high customer-retention rate to the care and quality of work our employees put in every day. We service customers across a variety of industries and our lifecycle approach ensures we continually innovate and optimize with market-leading technology services that demonstrate return-on-investment.”

The annual Inc. 5000 list, the most prestigious ranking of the nation’s fastest-growing private companies, represents a unique look at the most successful companies within the American economy’s most dynamic segment—its independent small businesses. Intuit, Zappos, Under Armour, Microsoft, Patagonia, and many other well-known names gained their first national exposure as honorees on the Inc. 5000.

“The 2021 Inc. 5000 list feels like one of the most important rosters of companies ever compiled,” says Scott Omelianuk, editor-in-chief of Inc. “Building one of the fastest-growing companies in America in any year is a remarkable achievement. Building one in the crisis we’ve lived through is just plain amazing. This kind of accomplishment comes with hard work, smart pivots, great leadership, and the help of a whole lot of people.”

Complete results of the Inc. 5000, including company profiles and an interactive database that can be sorted by industry, region, and other criteria, can be found at www.inc.com/inc5000. The top 500 companies are featured in the September issue of Inc., which will be available on newsstands on August 20.

About Lightstream

Lightstream provides full-service cloud, connectivity, and security solutions to enterprises worldwide with emphasis on managed services for all three, as well as cloud infrastructure implementation, security, and support.

Lightstream was named Palo Alto Networks Public Cloud Partner of the Year in 2018 and 2019, and is an AWS Security Competency Partner, an AWS Advanced Consulting Partner, and a Microsoft Cloud Platform Gold Partner with Security Competency. Visit us at http://www.lightstream.tech or LinkedIn.

Media Contact

Cynthia Lawton

cynthia.lawton@lightstream.tech

843-300-8445

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Lightstream Achieves Palo Alto Networks Prisma Cloud Specialization

NextWave Prisma Cloud Specialization will help Lightstream bring Advanced Cloud Security Expertise to Customers 

Salt Lake City, UT, June 3, 2021– Lightstream announced today that it has achieved a Palo Alto Networks NextWave Prisma Cloud Specialization Status. Lightstream has met the key specialization criteria around performance, capabilities, and engagement established by Palo Alto Networks’ NextWave 3.0 Partner Program.

As businesses expand their cloud footprints to innovate and go to market faster, cloud security must keep pace with the needs of both agile software development practices and hybrid and multi-cloud environments. Customers need the expertise and tools to ensure that their entire cloud native application lifecycle is protected and compliant while enabling full stack protection across public or private clouds for hosted, container, and serverless workloads.

Lightstream’s achievement of Palo Alto Networks’ Prisma Cloud Specialization adds further value to its robust cloud and security practice. The practice emphasizes architectural excellence as well as ongoing technical optimization, remediation, and cost performance for core, virtual, and remote infrastructures.  It further validates the capabilities of Lightstream Security Managed Services product portfolio to address the ongoing operational needs of customers.

“Lightstream Cloud Defense, built on Palo Alto Networks Prisma Cloud, pairs a flexible platform approach with cloud and security engineering expertise and remediation through our 24/7 security operations center (SOC),” said Jeff Collins, chief strategy officer for Lightstream. “Customers benefit from the power of Palo Alto Networks Prisma Cloud in a pay-as-you-grow managed service designed to fit their needs.”

“The partner of tomorrow will differentiate itself by building security expertise where that need is greatest,” said Karl Soderlund, SVP of Worldwide Channel Sales at Palo Alto Networks. “As a Prisma Cloud Specialized partner, Lightstream will bring expertise and cloud security to our customers who don’t always have the tools or resources to manage integrated DevOps security or secure complex, hybrid-cloud environments. This Cloud specialization is also our commitment to identify and bring high-value opportunities to partners backed by our leading security platform, with the incentives, enablement and support services that will help them establish innovative new solutions.”

About the NextWave Partner Program

The Palo Alto Networks NextWave partner program includes approximately 6,500 partners who help 80,000 customers around the world succeed with Palo Alto Networks Technologies. Its pre-sales, sales, and post-sales capabilities and enablement are instrumental in helping our partners create an optimal customer experience and serve as trusted security experts. Partners’ achievements in the program are proactively monitored and annually assessed.

NextWave 3.0 is a comprehensive set of program specializations, incentives, and enablement initiatives launched by Palo Alto Networks to Enable partner differentiation; enhance partner profitability, expand partner opportunities; and empower partner success.

To learn more about Lightstream’s Security Managed Services, visit our Security Practice page on lightstream.tech.

About Lightstream

Lightstream provides full-service cloud, connectivity, and security solutions to enterprises worldwide with a focus on managed services for all three, as well as cloud infrastructure implementation, security, and support.

Lightstream is an AWS Security Competency Partner, an AWS Advanced Consulting Partner, a Microsoft Cloud Platform Gold Partner with Security Competency, and was named Palo Alto Networks Public Cloud Partner of the Year in 2018 and 2019. Visit us at http://www.lightstream.tech or LinkedIn.

Media Contact

Cynthia.Lawton@lightstream.tech

 

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Lightstream Launches the Complification Podcast Series

Salt Lake City, UT, February 10, 2021 – Lightstream, a leader in cloud security, network transformation, and managed services, today announced the launch of its new podcast series: Complification. The series streams on Apple and Spotify and is available on Lightstream’s website.

Complification is defined in the Urban Dictionary as complicating an issue that has a simple solution. The Lightstream Complification Podcast Series sheds light on that notion for Information Technology (IT) professionals. It features experts and thought leaders in cloud, security, and networking and dives into how organizations are adding complexity to their IT, and what to do about it. The first four episodes include:

So Many Tools, So Little Time

  • More than ever, IT departments are being burdened by securing and retaining talent, procuring and maintaining toolsets, and overcoming budgetary constraints. Lightstream’s Mark Feil discusses why IT leaders should be rethinking deployment of best-of-breed management tools and pushing back on Managed Service Providers to deliver better value despite these constraints.

The Top Three Security Mistakes You’re Making in Microsoft Azure

  • With its scalable structure, pay-as-you-go pricing and 99.95% SLAs, it’s no wonder Microsoft Azure is a long-time leader in the IaaS space. With all of this flexibility and reliability comes responsibility, especially around security. Lightstream’s Ty Annen shares three common Azure security mistakes and what to do about them.

Got SD-WAN? Great! Now Let’s Talk About How to Secure It

  • SD-WAN is fueling the customer experience and transforming modern networking. It is also pushing distributed Internet connectivity, which introduces security vulnerabilities if not addressed properly. Lightstream’s Kurt Richter and Rafal Los combine their deep networking and security expertise into a powerful podcast on the intricacies of SD-WAN security and a 360-degree view of how to address it.

Bringing Cloud Security and Application Modernization Together

  • Modernizing your applications has many roadblocks, not least of which is the simple mental roadblock of getting the job done. Lightstream’s Ty Annen offers clear insight on how to break down the task while ensuring that cloud security remains an essential piece of the puzzle. Hint: there’s no need to surf eBay for network cards.

About Lightstream

Lightstream provides full-service cloud, connectivity, and security solutions to enterprises worldwide with a focus on managed services for all three, as well as cloud infrastructure implementation, security, and support.

Lightstream is an AWS Security Competency Partner, an AWS Advanced Consulting Partner, a Microsoft Cloud Platform Gold Partner with Security Competency, and was named Palo Alto Networks Public Cloud Partner of the Year in 2018 and 2019. Visit us at http://www.lightstream.tech or LinkedIn.

Media Contact

cynthia.lawton@lightstream.tech