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