Amanda Adams, CrowdStrike & Mona Chadha, AWS | CrowdStrike Fal.Con 2026

Good afternoon everyone and welcome back to the cub's live coverage of Falcon 2026 the crowdstrike show. I'm your host Rebecca Knight alongside Dave Volante, my co-host and co-CEO of the cube. I would like to welcome back to the show Mona Chhatta, director of AI and strategic partnerships at AWS. Welcome back Mona. >> Thank you. Always great to be here. >> And Amanda Adams, SVP global alliances at Crowdstrike. >> Thank you. Thanks for having us. We're excited to have you back. >> Yeah. >> So, before we get into what is changing or how this partnership is evolving, why don't you >> refresh our viewers memory about how long you've been working together and and how this partnership actually >> came together and works today. >> As a long time Crowd Striker, in the very beginning of our relationship, Crowd had it decades. I mean, at the very beginning of Crowdstrike, we bet on AWS. We're architected in AWS. We're built on AWS. And part of that was understanding their scale, their capabilities, the security first motion. And so just from a product and a platform standpoint, we led with AWS. From a partnership standpoint, we really started in 2015 2016 of starting to get going. Uh where was looking at how do we co-sell together? How are we building investments for our joint partners, but more importantly our customers of the services integration, what they can do with the technology on AWS that's powered by CrowdStrike. Um and really it's been a 10 year plus partnership at this point and we're taking it to new heights this year. we are taking it to new heights and I'll just say too that you know how like the genesis of this partnership was really about our end customers and there rarely is a conversation about security without AWS and crowdstrike like rarely right so that that just brought it to like sort of the paramount and then over the you know over the decade what we continued to do was build innovations together you know whether it was um building innovations around you know having CrowdStrike integrate um with our native services. Um as we now move into AI, we have things like Amazon Bedrock where you know um AWS where CrowdStrike actually has Amazon Bedrock like when they're selecting models within Falcon's, um platform, they're using Amazon Bedrock for that. So we have all these native integrations going and it just continues to help our customers innovate faster and especially with AI you know I mean look we've evolved from um you know machine learning to generative AI to now agentic and building these agents look there's a lot of opportunity there but there's also a lot of threats and so the two of us are coming together and not just the two of us yeah with quilt works we've actually there's an entire ecosystem right of partners that are all coming together to help develop solutions for our end customers and to provide AI security across a variety of different layers like obviously with AWS where the cloud infrastructure layer plus you know there's anthropic there's open AI when it comes to the models and then obviously you know crowdstrike sort of the uh the knitting that pulls it all together for us when it comes to security. So um and then creating services. So now all of these channel partners like Optive and Presidio and SHI um you know WWT CDW can now build services around all of these you know capabilities to help customers secure them uh with any of the AI threats that they have. >> Well especially now you you announced you're productizing Quilt Works. You guys announced that yesterday. Yeah. >> You know, to me the when I when I think about the AWS and Crowd Strike partnership, AWS's philosophy on security has always been you sort of build it in. >> Yeah. >> You you're insane about security, but you're not insane about monetizing security. I mean, you get some products. >> Yeah. >> But but there's there was a lot of room >> for CrowdStrike to play in the AWS ecosystem. And there's and there still is. I mean, it's like I say, it's it's something that's embedded. >> Yes. You know, when you talk to CJ, how has AI affected your partnership, your relationship, just created new TIM, new opportunities? >> That's right. >> New partners, co-artners. >> I think AI has only accelerated what we've done together. Right. If you take the use cases, it's basically compounded the opportunity for the the broader ecosystem, but the work that we're delivering for our customers, integrations into other ISVS, but also too, the partnership that we have gives customers visibility into those vulnerabilities. uh what we do is we again prior prioritize what the customers have within their environment and then those partners are the ones that are delivering remediation those long transformation projects there's so much opportunity AI essentially just accelerated the work that the partners were already doing >> and and what we see is that customers are building their AI applications on AWS and so they're building it with AWS they're building it with um they're using models from Amazon Bedrock whether it's you know um Frontier models or openweight models you can get that all from Amazon Bedrock but also they're building their agents there. So like wherever customers are running their workloads in AWS with this partnership it just now has provided uh like a much larger sort of surface area and that in turn what we've done together is created actually you know you talk about like we're not really monetizing uh security but I would say if you talk to all the partners out there they're like actually with AWS and crowd strike they've actually helped us accelerate and create new revenue uh streams for them in terms of services in terms of even new product offerings and so we see that consistently um with uh partners like you know like WWT and CDW you have Accenture you have all of that and so and then we've also like with our um you know we have also created unique opportunities through like our our AI startup accelerator so you know I see Tara over there and like that was one of the partners that you know they were our c they were our joint customer plus they're our partner Plus they came out of that accelerator and now they're providing AI solutions to customers. So like we've actually created like new opportunities I would say in security for those partners. Yeah. The the clearest thing for our ecosystem and this is what I'm so proud of is that as we've continued to innovate and lead is we're really defining the market but providing access to our entire ecosystem to the entire market of of not only resell partners but sis to the tech ISVS to your cloud providers. We're innovating and making AI and securing AI accessible to the masses. >> I'm glad you you clarified that because you do of course make a lot of money on security because of the marketplace and you sell a lot of compute, storage, and networking, >> but you don't go like headtohead which is which is, you know, and even when you do go headtohead like you sometimes you do with Snowflake, great partners as well. So you guys are like the the the the new model of partnerships. Um and it's just it's been fun to watch. >> Yeah. And and here's the thing like there are going to be opportunities where where there are some overlap. But I think you know one thing about AI that it's done it's almost like you know the the I would say negative sort of impact on AI in terms of like all the threats and vulnerabilities has also brought us all together because what it's done is it's we have one mission collectively all of our partners have one mission which is to you know really remediate any of those vulnerabilities to one identify when they come up and then two is to figure out how do we remediate and sometimes we have to recreate th that those issues like you know with the recent incident with hugging face and open AI that gave us a lot of transparency into oh my god this could happen how do we do that then as a team like crowdstrike AWS all of the partners came together and said okay well here's how we can address that and then we create the fair you know sort of framework in terms of how we're going to remediate so I think AI you know look there's there's a lot of challenges there's a lot of opportunities but there's a lot of challenges and it's also brought us together with one common mission and I think that's the beauty about it's not about we're going to compete with one another. We're going to figure out how we're going to help our joint customers, you know, get that security and trust and transparency. >> Well, it's like what Jensen was saying this morning in the keynote is coming together as the community and being the calming voice, but you had mentioned uh project quilt works earlier. Yeah. Why don't you why don't you tell us a little bit about that industrywide? Again, the Methos moment earlier this year was great for the market and the industry as a whole because it highlighted essentially the vulnerabilities, the speed to which our customers they deal with on a whole new level. Uh Crowd Strike's answer to that was one we can't do it alone. We have to have the partnerships with AWS with our SIS with the tech ISBs with our law firm and insurance partners. And so in looking at one the customer requirements but also just the power of the crowd is we created project quilt works. So quilt works is a coalition of folks and partners who join us. They leverage our platform. We announced yesterday Falcon IQ and this is a tool built on AWS that allows a partner to essentially drive an assessment and highlights the opportunities the priorities. They can load their own professional services catalog. It creates s for them. It basically has it's using AI to accelerate the time from discovery to remediation down to minutes. Um it's a really good example but at the end of the day quilt works is all about how do we leverage power of the crowd. We George talked about safe minds as well and our quilt works partners now have access to the different models or our model that we we've launched and it's a special thing because when it comes to again the power of what we are building we want our partners to have that as well so they can take that knowledge contribute to the community and to the crowd right so that they're learning the skills are learning um and it benefits all of our customers >> and safe mind and the and the the blue team and the red team they're starting with quilt works I believe right starting that ecosystem play it out I mean that that whole hugging face thing was unbelievable. I thought George's keynote was amazing. One of the things we didn't talk about because we've been talking about all week about just unpacking the anatomy of this. One of the things we haven't talked about is did you see this that they had Omera? The agents had Omera. They didn't they didn't rat on each other. I couldn't believe that. >> It is insane what's going on out there, right? And that's the one that we know about like that's that's the story George said like what the he posed the audience to our question to the audience was like what do you not know exactly like what that's the one thing that we've seen imagine what we haven't seen to a certain extent right and so it's getting ahead of that and Quill works and the coalition of our partners leading with crowdstrike but also to the power of AWS is helping obviously accelerate uh remediation stay >> you have to be so creative to work in this industry in the sense of thinking about the most outlandish things that can happen that could possibly happen and all the different iterations. And I think the thing the key thing though is and and you know a lot of it does go back to the basics that we've always sort of said and and it's been a philosophy of you know AWS from the from the start which is build everything with security in mind like security is job zero and everything that we do like in terms of any of our services any of our AI architecture always has security built in and as we sort of think about you know how we're all going to evolve together those fundamentals and that mentality like that mental model has to continue to exist and I think with AI it just brings it to the forefront but had everyone just been thinking about it some of these things like in terms of like when agents to agents are you know working like when they're kind of fighting one another and they're like you know they're working with one another and all of that uh orchestration that happens autonomously like as long as we have that security layer built in that's where we can ensure that we have the proper guard rails that then ensure that look these agents go don't go out of that sandbox or don't go out of that you know that area where it's like okay no you're not supposed to do that so I do think like you know now is our point where we do have to get super creative and think about the potentially worse that can happen but the thinking is that it's only going to protect our customers only going to protect us and protect this partnership and the entire ecosystem >> the last thing I'll add to that is that when Moan and I are sitting down and we're looking at the investments ments that we're making in the broader community. >> We're doubling down across our ecosystem of where are we investing in the innovation. So as we integrate and build new services and launch new offerings out to market, where do we invest there? How are we supporting the incentives for our broader channel community or the partner community of driving their services? >> Purchasing obviously your AWS marketplace is another one, but the strategic opportunities. How are we accelerating their expertise, i.e. our our partner base to make sure that they're one continuing to innovate, but we're helping the market as a whole. I'm really excited for what we have uh planned. We can't get into details here, but we have some exciting plans for the rest of this year as well as next year of where we as leaders are doubling down for the greater community. >> Yeah, exactly that. >> Well, one of the things we said, I think it was two years ago, we said CrowdStrike is going to become an industry event and it's become that. Uh AWS chose to take to bundle reinforce now and to reinvent. Reinvent. Yeah. >> I'm gonna miss Reinforce. You know, I'm gonna miss Philadelphia. >> You miss Philly. Okay. [laughter] >> Actually, it started in Boston. You know, it started in Boston. Yes, that's right. Boston in the summertime. But um but this has truly become an an industrywide event. >> Yes. >> Yeah. So, congratulations on that. >> Thank you. And I think this is still very much the beginning, right? So, as we go from 11,000 to 20,000, etc. I mean just the power of this floor. It's awesome to see partners of small to large to our SIS who normally don't have booths, right? If you think about Accenture, Deote, GS or EY, they're all showing up because their clients are here. The the the customers that they serve are here. They're here to learn. But also too, if you think about it opens up use cases for customers say, hey, how do I integrate with the secure W2 or the Pikas or the Terra, etc. that they didn't know even were in our ecosystem to begin with. That's one of the powers of Crowdstrike because we have over 900 integrations companies that we work with just on the tech ISV side, right? All of the AI partnerships that we're starting to onboard and work with. AI startups pop up every other week. Yes. >> And so we from an ecosystem standpoint want to be the place that people start that we invest in from a startup standpoint, but security is built in from day one so that our customers can benefit. >> Exactly. >> Well, you know, the gsis are going to be here because >> Oh, yeah. GSI. They like to eat they they love to eat at the trough. I like to say this is perfect for it is a big this is a big space and I think with all of these you know sort of industry events that are going on whether it's Falcon it's you know there was you know black hat and and others and then we have another big event coming up at reinvent uh you know in uh in December um I think it's like the conversation continues and the conversation around AI security continues and so that's really what we are looking for is is to ensure that the dialogue happens is consistent and then we're bringing more and more partners on board. We're bringing more um startups on board. We're bringing more um solutions on board with um channel partners and gsis and again we're bringing it forward so that you know we're able to um you know bring more awareness to one the the threats the vulnerabilities and then how to remediate them and we have all this great technology all these great solutions that customers can implement. So it's just like it just to me is super exciting. >> Yeah. But it's a party, right? You do all this work as a team and it's a great way to showcase the work. I mean, Guardian is, you know, months of work by teams across the board and this is their party in celebration. It's GA today and it's a way to celebrate the teams and hard work. We get to expose all of the innovation that our teams are doing at events like this. We have some fun stuff planned for reinvent later this year as well. So, I always love it because we can celebrate the work that we're doing for the industry. >> Yeah, >> tech bubbles are a gift. I always say >> they [laughter] are. They are. Enjoy them while they last. >> That's right. Party. >> Exactly. Exactly. Well, Mona and Amanda, thank you both so much. Always so much fun having you on the show. Such great energy. >> Thank you everyone. >> I'm Rebecca Knight for Dave Volante. The Cube is taking a quick break, but we will be back with more from Falcon 2026. 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