Intelligent Tech Channels Issue 10 | Page 48

EDITOR’S QUESTION Accelerating partner development The MSSP programme is designed to empower MSSPs with the tools, expertise, training and support to accelerate profitability, expand growth, increase market leadership and deliver the industry’s most advanced security services to their customers, says Zacky Vaz, Regional Channel Manager, Fortinet. Zacky Vaz, Regional Channel Manager, Fortinet. T he ME’s technology market is dynamic in nature. From a network security vendor point of view, we are seeing large and medium-sized organisations increasing their investment in security solutions to help them combat the latest threats such as ransomware. While we see enterprises increasing their budgets for security, we also see big opportunities from SMBs; they are realising their businesses are actively being targeted by those that carry out cyber attacks. At the same time, businesses are looking for cost-effective solutions to combat ever-growing and complex threat vectors and I believe this is driving the network security market forward. We are also seeing businesses focus on integrating security across the board, rather than simply adding security layers to existing infrastructure 48 to tackle threats. No longer is a single solution of interest; now organisations want complete solutions that are scalable and offer end-to-end protection with no impact on employee productivity. As trends such as AI, VR, autonomous vehicles and blockchain are gradually becoming a reality, we are beginning to see an increased demand for advanced security technologies to address potential threats. In a demanding and competitive business environment, partners are constantly focused on differentiating themselves and vendors play a crucial role in helping them achieve a stronger position when selling their solutions. Partner programmes are critical for partner growth and to help them accelerate their sales cycles. Programmes also play an important role in helping them build strong and technically sound expertise to support their customers. The FortiPartner programme is designed to identify and grow a reseller’s service strength and specialisations, aligning with its own business goals, and providing the appropriate partnership level for advanced support, development and opportunity in untapped markets. A key aspect of the FortiPartner programme is the Network Security Expert Certification, or the NSE programme. It is an eight- level certification programme developed to equip partners with in-depth expertise across Fortinet’s full scope of integrated solutions, and it includes a wide range of self-paced, instructor-led courses for all technical professionals. It was designed to build partner expertise in increasingly complex network security A s a network security vendor, give us an overview of the market opportunities and partner programme for regional channel partners. concepts, which are in demand in today’s business environments. The programme ultimately helps partners accelerate their sales, develop new services and validate advanced skills and experience in-line with the evolving cybersecurity landscape. Our recently launched MSSP programme is designed to empower managed security service providers (MSSPs) with the tools, expertise, training and support to accelerate profitability, expand growth, increase market leadership and deliver the industry’s most advanced security services to their customers. We have also opened up the Security Fabric to the partner ecosystem to accelerate customers’ transition to integrated security strategies to address the full spectrum of challenges across the attack life cycle. The Fortinet Fabric-Ready Partner Program demonstrates Fortinet’s commitment to an open, integrated Security Fabric, allowing enterprises the flexibility to deploy Fortinet solutions alongside their existing or new security technologies for truly integrated protection. The programme brings together leading network security solutions to deliver pre-integrated, end- to-end offerings ready for deployment, reducing the technical support burden and costs for enterprise customers. To become a successful channel partner, organisations must invest in the right sales and technical resources to stay ahead of the competition and offer value to customers. Channel partners need to align themselves with vendor and distributor strategies while being compliant with sales and technical certifications that are part of channel partner programmes.  Issue 10 INTELLIGENT TECH CHANNELS