According to Levy and Secureworks CEO Wendy Thomas, the $859 million deal seeks to enable MSPs to better identify and respond to smaller customers who are increasingly targeted by cyberattacks.
employed acquisition According to Sophos CEO Joe Levy, Sophos’ acquisition of extended detection and response specialist SecureWorks will accelerate the cybersecurity giant’s effort to bring better XDR capabilities to protect frequently targeted SMBs.
Even with the addition of enterprise-oriented SecureWorks capabilities, “we’re going to maintain our focus on SMBs and midmarket, because we think they’re the ones that need better types of offerings the most,” Levy said in an interview. [Related: Sophos-Secureworks Merger: 5 Big Partner Takeaways]
Levy and SecureWorks CEO Wendy Thomas spoke to CRN last week after the announcement of an $859 million deal between Sophos, owned by private equity firm Thoma Bravo, and SecureWorks, the majority owner of Dell Technologies.
According to Levy, the proposed acquisition will undoubtedly be one of the largest investments in SMB security in recent years, and importantly will also mean massive new opportunities for partners, including MSPs.
The focus on meeting the needs of partners “will be fundamental in the way we bring these companies together,” said Levy, a Sophos veteran who was named the company’s acting CEO and permanent CEO in February. in may,
Thomas said the goal of the merger is to create a combined company that can become an even stronger player in the fight against cybercriminals targeting SMBs and midmarket organizations.
âI think when you bring together two significant players with technology and the best managed detection and response services, you are able to bring enterprise-grade security outcomes that become accessible to the market at an affordable price – And ease of implementation â that changes the industry,â he said.
Officials said that while there is no doubt that SecureWorks XDR capabilities will be leveraged to enhance the Sophos security platform, integration is still being determined and whether SecureWorks will also be offered as a standalone platform. Will continue.
A rapidly growing category in cybersecurity, Is.
‘A more complete offering’
Executives at Sophos’ solution provider partners told CRN they are optimistic about the potential of the deal, saying it should make Sophos more competitive in the XDR and MDR markets, while making advanced security more accessible to smaller customers. .
To date, while Sophos has a broad portfolio of security offerings, the company does not have a full set of detection and response capabilities beyond the endpoint, the partners said.
However, assuming the Secureworks deal closes, “Sophos now has a more complete offering,” said Jason Norred, CISO at Littleton, Colo.-based Sophos Partner, Solutions II.
âSophos teaming up with Secureworks allows them to do full-stack endpoint and MDR, and capture the rest of the organization’s security logs and do full XDR response capabilities,â Nored said. âI think it would be a compelling offer.â
The acquisition âdefinitely does [Sophos] More competitive,” he said. âThis gives them a seat at the table.â
According to NORED, given the massive threat posed against SMBs, investment in bringing more XDR capabilities to small businesses is extremely welcome. âSMB organizations are in dire need of help,â he said.
Ultimately, “I think Sophos-SecureWorks is well-positioned to have a go-to-market offering that’s kind of an all-in-one solution that really helps SMBs enhance their security program at an affordable entry point.” Allows,” Norred said.
‘head on’ competition
Other Sophos partners who spoke with CRN agreed, including Michel Drolet, founder and CEO of TowerWall, a provider of solutions and professional services for security based in Framingham, Mass. Drolet said there is no doubt that the acquisition puts Sophos in a position to compete “more generally.” With more players in the MDR market, however, much depends on integration and pricing models.
Still, many existing MDR providers are “a little expensive for the SMB play,” which could give Sophos a big advantage if it can keep its expanded MDR offering affordable for smaller customers, she said.
Tyler Rasmussen, vice president of cybersecurity at Executech, a Salt Lake City-based Sophos MSP partner, also praised the planned acquisition of Secureworks by Sophos, calling it a “very positive and encouraging sign.”
The deal “confirms their commitment to investing in and continuing to improve their XDR and MDR services â which are now absolute requirements for SMBs,” Rasmussen said.
Speaking with CRN, Levy said a key aspect of the opportunity ahead is that the combined company brings an “improved” model when it comes to security operations â one that truly integrates XDR and SIEM (security information and event )’s arrangement to “accelerate convergence”.
“Certainly, the technology that SecureWorks has built into its Tagis platform has tremendous value,” he said. âI’m very excited about the added value that we’re going to be able to provide to our customers.â
Vulnerability detection, threat detection
Some specific areas cited by Levy include SecureWorks’ vulnerability detection and response capabilities â which “we know is going to be very valuable to our customers,” he said.
Levy also pointed to the identity threat detection and response (ITDR) offering from SecureWorks, which will enhance Sophos’ existing ITDR capabilities in the Microsoft ecosystem.
âThe ITDR capabilities that SecureWorks has built are ahead of most other security offerings we have seen in this space. So there’s incredible value there,â he said.
Both CEOs emphasized the partner-first mindset of each of their companies, suggesting this bodes well for the integration of channel programs once the deal closes.
‘Turning the tide’ against hackers
Thomas, who helped oversee Secureworks’ transition from an MSSP to a security vendor focused on XDR, said the company was also really inspired by Sophos’ commitment to partners.
“Sophos has a really great reputation in the partner ecosystem,” he said, adding that the company had learned early on that “the example we should emulate is the Sophos partner approach.”
Levy said he believes the combined company’s relationship with MSPs will be “key to really turning the corner for us” in SMBs’ fight against threat actors.
Overall, “I think we have a really powerful opportunity in how we’re going to bring these two entities together,” Levy said.
CRN staff compiled the top partner-friendly products that launched or were significantly updated over the last year. Now itâs up to solution providers to choose the winners.
Application Performance and Observability
As more applications run in hybrid-cloud and multi-cloud environments, maintaining application performance has becoming a more complex task. Application performance management and observability tools help IT organizations maintain the health, performance and user experience of business applications, according to market researcher Gartner. Such tools are used by IT operations managers, site reliability engineers, cloud and platform teams, application developers and software product owners. Datadog Observability Platform Dynatrace Unified Observability Platform Grafana 11 IBM Instana Observability New Relic Observability Platform Splunk Observability Cloud
Artificial Intelligence: AI PCs
Everyday information workers and consumers are adopting the rapidly growing number of AI applications, copilots and other AI-driven software to improve their productivity and creativity. Thatâs fueling demand for personal computers with specialized processors, hardware and software to handle AI tasks. Global AI PC unit shipments are expected to exceed 43 million this year, according to market researcher Gartner, and soar to more than 114 million in 2025. Acer TravelMate P4 14 (AMD) Apple MacBook Pro (M3) Dell Latitude 7455 (Qualcomm) HP EliteBook 1040 G11 (Intel) Lenovo ThinkPad 14S Gen 6 (Qualcomm) Samsung Galaxy Book4 Pro (Intel)
Artificial Intelligence: Productivity Suites
Copilots, AI-powered assistants and other AI-based productivity software have become the most popular vehicle for users to tap into the power of artificial intelligence technology. These tools can help with everyday tasks including writing and editing documents, generating images, conducting research, automating repetitive tasks and more. AI productivity software, along with AI PCs, are the products that are bringing AI capabilities to the masses. Microsoft Copilot Google Gemini
Artificial Intelligence: Infrastructure
Businesses and organizations are rapidly expanding their use of AI. Building, deploying and running AI and machine learning applications, however, takes a lot of compute horsepower and the ability to process huge amounts of data. Thatâs boosting demand for powerful AI hardware in data centers and the cloud. Systems that support AI initiatives are expected to provide high levels of performance and scalability. Dell PowerEdge R760xa Lenovo ThinkSystem SR780a V3 Supermicro AS-4125GS-TNHR2-LCC
Big Data
Data volumes continue to explode and the global âdatasphereâ â the total amount of data created, captured, replicated and consumed â is growing more than 20 percent a year and is expected to reach approximately 291 zettabytes in 2027, according to market researcher IDC.
But wrangling all that data is a major challenge for businesses and thatâs fueling demand for a range of big data tools to help businesses access, collect, manage, move, transform, govern and secure data. Cloudera Open Data Lakehouse Databricks Data Intelligence Platform HPE Ezmeral Data Fabric Software Microsoft Intelligent Data Platform Snowflake Data Cloud Starburst Galaxy
Business Applications
Business applications, including Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) and financial management software, are the operational backbone for many businesses and organizations. ERP applications are the tools they use to automate and manage their business processes including accounting and finance, HR, supply chain and procurement, manufacturing, and more. Epicor ERP Oracle NetSuite Microsoft Dynamics 365 Sage Intacct SAP S/4HANA Syspro ERP
Business Intelligence and Data Analytics
Many businesses and organizations are deriving huge value and competitive advantages from data generated by their own IT systems, collected through customer transactions and acquired from outside sources.
Businesses analyze data to gain insights about markets, their customers and their own operations. They are using the data to fuel digital transformation initiatives. They are even using it to support new data-intensive services or packaging it into data products. Amazon Redshift Domo Data Experience Platform Google Cloud BigQuery MicroStrategy ONE Qlik Sense Salesforce Tableau
Data Protection, Management and Resiliency
Data is the lifeblood of the modern enterprise. Data thatâs lost or unavailable, either due to system failure, a disastrous event like a fire or earthquake, human error or a cyberattack, can cause major disruptions.
Data resilience and protection systems and services help businesses protect and maintain access to data, and identify, detect, respond and recover from data-destructive events. Cohesity Data Cloud Commvault Cloud Powered by Metallic AI Dell PowerProtect Data Manager Appliance HYCU R-Cloud Rubrik Security Cloud Veeam Data Platform
Edge Computing and Internet of Things
Efforts to bring applications and data processing closer to data sources is driving the proliferation of local edge servers and IoT devices. That, in turn, is driving demand for products to better manage and support increasingly distributed computing networks.
The global market for edge computing hardware, software and services is expected to grow at a CAGR of 15.7 percent to $111.3 billion by 2028, according to Markets and Markets. Eaton iCube HPE Edgeline IBM Edge Application Manager Red Hat Device Edge Scale Computing Autonomous Infrastructure Management Engine (AIME) Schneider Electric EcoStruxure Micro Data Center R-Series
Hybrid Cloud Infrastructure
Hybrid cloud infrastructure combines cloud-based (often Infrastructure-as-a-Service) resources with on-premises/private cloud IT systems, working together and sharing applications and data to provide businesses with the flexibility and scalability they need to support distributed business workloads and processes. A report from Allied Market Research says the global hybrid cloud market was $96.7 billion in 2023 and will reach $414.1 million by 2032. Dell Technologies Apex Hybrid Cloud HPE GreenLake IBM Hybrid Cloud NetApp Hybrid Cloud Nutanix Hybrid Multicloud VMware Cloud Foundation
MSP Platforms
Managed services have been one of the fastest growing segments of the IT channel as more businesses, organizations and government entities rely on MSPs to manage their IT infrastructure and end-user systems.
Thatâs boosting demand for MSP platforms, including the remote monitoring and management tools, professional services automation systems and other tools that MSPs rely on to do their jobs. Atera ConnectWise Asio Platform HaloPSA Kaseya 365 N-able Cloud Commander Syncro Platform
Networking â Enterprise
Networking hardware, including routers, switches, hubs and bridges, have long been a mainstay of the channel. Today channel companies offer networking solutions and services that span data center and cloud networks, campus LAN and WAN, Network-as-a-Service, network management and automation, and network security systems. Cisco Networking Cloud HPE Aruba Networking Enterprise Private 5G Juniper AI-Native Networking Platform Nile NaaS Prosimo AI Suite for Multi-Cloud Networking
Networking â Wireless
Wireless networks are key to making computing, communications and collaboration ubiquitous whether in the home, throughout offices and other workspaces, in manufacturing and industrial plants, and across large venues such as conference facilities and sports stadiums. Wi-Fi 7 is the seventh generation of wireless technology offering faster speeds and improved connectivity and capacity. Extreme Networks AP5020 universal Wi-Fi 7 access point Fortinet FortiAP 441K Wi-Fi 7 access point HPE Aruba Networking Wi-Fi 7 access point Zyxel Wi-Fi 7 access point
Power Protection and Management
Power protection and management systems and appliances are a critical component for protecting critical IT infrastructure and keeping data centers up and running in the event of extreme events. The product category includes technology for monitoring and managing power usage, protecting IT systems against electricity surges, and providing backup in the event of power failures. CyberPower PFC Sinewave 1U UPS Eaton 9PX 6kVA Lithium-Ion UPS Schneider Electric Easy UPS 3-Phase 3M Advanced Vertiv Liebert GXT5 Lithium-Ion UPS
Processors â CPUs
CPU semiconductors are the processing engines that power servers, laptop and desktop PCs, and mobile devices. Intel was long-dominant in the CPU space, but rival AMD has developed highly competitive products in recent years. Apple, meanwhile, has been developing its own âsiliconâ for its Mac, iPad and iPhone devices. AMD Ryzen Pro 8040 Series Intel Core Ultra Series AmpereOne Apple M3 Qualcomm Snapdragon X Elite
Processors â GPUs
Graphics processing units or GPUs are a specialized processor originally developed to accelerate the performance of computer graphics. But they are increasingly being designed into IT systems for high-performance computing tasks such as data science and AI applications. Nvidia has been a pioneer in developing GPUs for a broad range of applications, but rivals Intel and AMD have been expanding their GPU product portfolios. AMD Instinct MI300X Intel ARC A570M Nvidia H200
Public Cloud Platforms
Public cloud platforms provide organizations with an alternative to building and managing their own IT systems and data centers. Public cloud operators also offer their own portfolios of cloud products and services such as application hosting, data storage and analytics. The value proposition is that cloud services reduce capital spending for businesses and provide more flexibility by allowing them to scale IT usage up or down as needed. Amazon Web Services CoreWeave Cloud Google Cloud Platform Microsoft Azure Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI) Snowflake Data Cloud
SD-WAN
SD-WAN is a software-defined approach to managing and optimizing the performance and security of wide area networks that connect users to applications and cloud platforms. SD-WAN benefits include improved performance and connectivity, enhanced security, simplified management and lower operating costs. Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN Extreme Networks Extreme Cloud SD-WAN Fortinet Secure SD-WAN HPE Aruba EdgeConnect SD-WAN Palo Alto Networks Prisma SD-WAN Zscaler Zero Trust SD-WAN
Security â Cloud and Application Security
The rapid growth of cloud computing has created new security challenges for businesses and organizations as they adopt and utilize distributed IT infrastructure and applications that lie both within and outside of the corporate firewall. Cloud and application security technologies provide a range of capabilities including protection against internal and external threats, identity and access control, and network visibility and management. CrowdStrike Falcon Cloud Security F5 Distributed Cloud Services Web Application Scanning Orca Cloud Security Platform Palo Alto Networks Prisma Cloud SentinelOne Singularity Cloud Security Tenable Cloud Security Wiz Cloud Security Platform
Security â Data
Protecting data has become a top priority for with the proliferation of ransomware attacks and other cybercrimes. The media is filled with headlines of businesses, hospitals, insurance companies, government entities and other organizations who find themselves blocked from accessing their own critical data or discover that their data has been stolen and is for sale on the Dark Web.
Data security tools provide a range of functions to accomplish their task including data encryption, user authentication and controlling access to data, monitoring data in real time to detect and respond to unusual activity, manage compliance with data governance requirements, and more. ForcePoint ONE Data Security IBM Guardium Data Protection Proofpoint Information Protection Rubrik Security Cloud Wiz DSPM Zscaler Data Protection
Security â Email and Web Security
Email and other internet communications are perhaps the most common vector for cybersecurity attacks including spam, phishing, malware delivery and system takeover.
Email security products, including antivirus/antimalware tools, spam filters, authentication and encryption systems, are a key component of a businessâs overall IT security strategy. Web security tools help prevent attacks against websites. Abnormal Security Platform Akamai API Security Barracuda Email Protection Cloudflare Application Security Mimecast Advanced Email Security Proofpoint Threat Protection
Security â Endpoint Protection
Businesses can be most vulnerable through the endpoint devices (desktop PCs, laptops, smartphones) employees use for everyday work, along with embedded devices, IoT and other edge computing systems. This is especially true with todayâs post-pandemic hybrid work practices where many of these devices now sit outside of corporate security perimeters.
Products in this technology category include antivirus and antimalware tools, endpoint protection platforms, and endpoint detection/response and extended detection/response software. CrowdStrike Falcon Insight XDR Huntress Managed EDR SentinelOne Singularity XDR Sophos Intercept X ThreatLocker Protect Trend Micro Trend Vision One
Security â Identity and Access Management
Businesses use identity and access management tools, backed by related policies and processes, to manage digital identities and control access to corporate IT systems and data. IAM tools, a foundational cybersecurity technology for zero trust IT initiatives, are key to identifying, authenticating and authorizing users â including employees and trusted business partners â while protecting against unauthorized access. CyberArk Workforce Identity Ping Identity PingOne for Workforce Okta Workforce Identity Cloud Microsoft Entra ID OpenText NetIQ Identity Manager SailPoint Identity Security Cloud
Security â Managed Detection and Response
Many businesses and organizations, especially SMBs, lack in-house cybersecurity expertise. Many turn to managed detection and response (MDR) providers for outsourced services that monitor clientsâ IT systems, endpoints, networks and cloud environments on a 24/7 basis and respond to detected cyberthreats. MDR offerings generally combine cybersecurity teams, advanced threat detection tools and security operations center functions. Arctic Wolf MDR CrowdStrike Falcon Complete Next-Gen MDR Huntress MDR for Microsoft 365 SentinelOne Singularity MDR Sophos MDR ThreatLocker Cyber Hero MDR
Security â Network
Businesses face multiple challenges to keep their network infrastructure secure and operational. Potential threats include distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks, network-based ransomware, insider threats and password attacks, to name a few.
Securing corporate networks, meanwhile, has become all the harder with the move to remote work and the increasing use of cloud applications.
The specific technology components of a sound network security strategy include firewalls, SASE (secure access service edge) systems, network access control technology, antivirus and antimalware software, intrusion prevention systems, and tools for cloud, application and email security. Cisco Hypershield Fortinet FortiGate SonicWall Cloud Secure Edge Sophos XGS Firewall ThreatLocker CyberHero MDR WatchGuard ThreatSync+ NDR
Security â Security Operations Platform
Security Operations links security and IT operations teams to improve an organizationâs cybersecurity posture across IT systems, networks and applications. SecOps software incorporates tools and processes to provide a unified approach to cybersecurity to help identify security threats and vulnerabilities, reduce risks and respond more quickly to security incidents. Arctic Wolf Security Operations CrowdStrike Falcon Next-Gen SIEM Google Security Operations Microsoft Sentinel Palo Alto Networks Cortex XSIAM 2.0 Splunk Enterprise Security
Security â Security Access Service Edge
Security Access Service Edge platforms combine network and security services into a single cloud-based system â a critical concept for managing todayâs multi-cloud environments and hybrid workforces. SASE can include multiple functions including zero-trust network access, secure web gateways, cloud access security brokers and firewall services to provide centralized control over identity and access policies and operations. Cato SASE Cloud Platform Cisco Secure Access Fortinet FortiSASE Netskope One SASE Palo Alto Networks Prisma SASE Zscaler Zero Trust SASE
Storage â Enterprise
Data volumes continue to explode and the global âdatasphereâ â the total amount of data created, captured, replicated and consumed â is growing more than 20 percent a year and is expected to reach approximately 291 zettabytes in 2027, according to market researcher IDC.
That data, of course, must be stored somewhere. While more data is being stored on cloud platforms, many businesses and organizations maintain on-premises data storage systems â either standalone or as part of a hybrid system â for a number of reasons including data security and governance and reduced internet costs. Dell PowerStore HPE Alletra Storage MP Infinidat SSA Express NetApp AFF C-Series Pure Storage FlashArray//E Quantum ActiveScale Z200 Object Storage
Storage â Software-Defined
Software-defined storage technology uncouples or abstracts storage management and provisioning from the underlying hardware. One benefit is that pools of physical storage resources can be managed as a single system, helping to reduce costs compared to traditional storage area network (SAN) and network-attached storage (NAS) systems. DDN Infinia Dell PowerFlex HPE GreenLake for Block Storage IBM Software-Defined Storage Pure Storage Purity
Unified Communications and Collaboration
Unified communications (including Unified Communications as a Service) integrates VoIP, instant messaging, video conferencing and other communication capabilities through a single interface. UCC has taken on increased importance with more employees working from home and other remote locations.
UCC is a long-time channel mainstay with solution providers implementing, maintaining and operating UCC systems. The global UCC market is expected to reach $141.6 billion by 2027, according to Markets and Markets. Cisco Webex Intermedia Unite Microsoft Teams Nextiva Unified Customer Experience Platform RingCentral RingCX
“We are committed to equipping MSPs with the most advanced tools to protect their customers’ data,” says Jim Lippy, CEO of SaaS Alerts. ‘Integrating SaaS alerts into Kaseya 365 User means MSPs can now provide advanced threat detection and response capabilities specifically tailored to the user and application level.’
Kaseya today announced it has purchased cybersecurity startup SaaS Alert to further enhance comprehensive, real-time protection for user identity and protection in software-as-a-service environments.
The technology behind SaaS Alerts, an Allentown, Pa.-based software-as-a-service company that specializes in monitoring and securing SaaS applications, is now integrated into Kaseya 365 User at no additional cost.
Kaseya 365 User was also unveiled this week at Kaseya’s DattoCon conference in Miami, giving MSPs the ability to help their customers prevent, respond to, and recover from user identity and security threats.
âSmall businesses rely heavily on MSPs to maintain secure IT environments,â Jim Lippy, CEO of SaaS Alerts, told CRN. âWe are committed to equipping MSPs with the most advanced tools to protect their customersâ data. Integrating SaaS alerts into Kaseya 365 User means MSPs can now provide advanced threat detection and response capabilities specifically tailored to the user and application level.
The technology of SaaS Alerts is expected to strengthen the ability of MSPs to protect small businesses and their customers from growing cyber threats. A team of approximately 50 employees is involved in the acquisition. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.
âWe have built a platform that helps MSPs secure millions of users and applications globally,â said Lippi, who said he will remain with the company. âNow, with Kasiaâs resources, we can make even more impactful change for the MSP community.â
This announcement comes on the heels of Kasia’s spring launch of Kasia 365 Endpoint, which is part of a larger mission to provide end-to-end cybersecurity for MSPs. Kaseya 365 expands this initiative by addressing user-centric cyber threats.
Mark Menzies, president and CTO of New York-based MSP Overview Technology Solutions, said it cannot be denied that Kasia continues its commitment to innovation and becoming a âone stop shopâ for MSPs.
âIf they are able to achieve the commitment they made to FedRAMP and integrate all of their service offerings, including SaaS alerts, into the platform and have it all in one environment, they will save an incredible amount of time and complexity.â , and thus cost savings from the cost of achieving compliance from both a documentation and technology perspective,â he told CRN. âThis will truly be game changing.â
SaaS Alerts was launched in 2021 to help MSPs navigate a cybersecurity landscape focused on users and applications rather than traditional device-based security. For MSPs and small businesses, the increased security offered by Kasia 365 users represents a promising change, Lippi said.
âThe MSP community can count on us to continue our dedication to their growth and security,â he said. âThe integration with Kasia helps us leverage AI and machine learning at scale. With access to Kasia’s massive data sets, we are better equipped to keep MSPs one step ahead in protecting their customers.
Kasia also announced a $10 million investment in a new Backup Concierge program, which aims to reduce costs and risk for MSPs through personalized support and profitability insights.
It has enhanced its endpoint backup with centralized, policy-based management, flexible restore options, and integration with popular MSP platforms.
Additionally, Kasia’s PSA and AutoTask now include AI-powered tools like Smart Ticket Summaries and Smart Writing Assistant to streamline ticket management and communication.
A new combination of Network Detective Pro and AuditIT was also announced to provide MSPs with a single platform for audit, discovery, and reporting, and MSPs can now take advantage of Vonahi’s initial Pentest evaluation.
‘The foundation of our program was hardware and transactions. That’s who we were as a company at the time and it served us well… but the reward was a partner to transact with, and the way we do business today is very different. This is the first significant change to how we evaluate partners since the original effort [partner] ecosystem,’ Rodney Clark, Cisco channel lead, told CRN of Cisco 360, a brand new partner program.
The prestigious partner program known for its ability to fund major industry changes for Cisco partners is getting the largest renewal in the company’s history.
Cisco 360, the new partner program that the tech giant introduced at the Cisco Partner Summit 2024 on Monday, was created to attract more MSPs and MSSPs with a focus on the transactions facilitated by partners. This represents a notable break from the largest payouts received by partners doing large, capital expenditure infrastructure deals.
“The foundation of our program was hardware and transactions. That’s who we were as a company at the time and it served us well… but the reward was, through a rebate mechanism and a number of other rebate mechanisms, a partner who transactions, and the way we do business today is quite different, our customers’ expectations are quite different and we wanted our program to reflect that,â said senior vice president of partnerships and small and medium business for Cisco Systems “This is the first significant change in how we evaluate partners since the original effort,” Vice President Rodney Clark told CRN in an exclusive interview. [partner] Ecosystem.” [Related: Partners Say HPE Still âA Ways Behindâ Cisco In Network Dominance As CEOs Spar]
The new program marks a new era in which networking services, security and AI take center stage. The company’s pivot to offering rewards based on value will open the door to “boutique” security and networking partners, Clark said.
âThe way we’ve designed it, because we’re moving beyond transactions and value index, it really gives way to partners who are specialized partners in things like security and networking. It gives way to those boutique partners. Gives that are probably very specific, but important to us from an ecosystem perspective,” Clark said.
The Cisco 360 program will eliminate separate partner programs and incentives such as VIP, Perform Plus, and the Cisco Services Partner Program, or CSPP. These will be rolled out into a single structure called Cisco Partner Incentives (CPI), which was first discussed during the 2023 Partner Summit. The CPI will reflect an overall value index that will measure participants in four areas: fundamentals, capabilities, performance and engagement, Clark said.
The new program is also eliminating the coveted Cisco Gold Partner designation, and will be replaced by two designations: Cisco Partner and Cisco Preferred Partner. Cisco partners can earn these designations for each portfolio, such as security or networking, the company said.
âThis is certainly a modern program for us that puts AI at the center. It is a program that is based on building the capacity of partners and delivering value for us in five areas: networking, security, observability, collaboration, Cloud, and this thread beyond that is AI,â Clark said. âThis allows us to establish value in each architecture, and then also reward partners who cut across our architectures and deliver AI-specific outcomes.â
The new program replaces Cisco’s current complex incentive system with a more predictable structure that better aligns with how Cisco wants to do business; by driving software adoption and business outcomes, said Stephen Bland, group alliance director at UK-based global solutions provider Computecenter, one of Cisco’s largest Gold Partners.
ComputeCenter is one of the partners that has been working with Cisco behind the scenes to overhaul the partner program.
“As Cisco has grown with a broader product range and different routes to market, I think the existing partner programs have perhaps become increasingly complex and time-consuming to manage for partners,” Bland said. âI think it’s a very appropriate time to consider how Cisco has changed, how the market has changed, and completely refresh it and take a fresh look at it to simplify and remove some of the existing complexities and It was a good time.”
Cisco is a large organization with partners around the world who will have to adapt to the new program. In this regard, the new program will not come into effect until February 2026.
âWe really have to get into the details about new metrics, rewards, and how we make money. There’s still some learning process to go through, and that’s why Cisco is [spending] Sharing more details and piloting it over the next 15 months, so that when it goes live, partners have a good understanding of it. They are not doing this quickly. This is such a big change that it will take time for their partners and Cisco itself to really understand what this means in the market,â Bland said.
In the meantime, Cisco wants to help protect its partners’ investments, Clark said.
âIf you’re a Gold partner today, you need to continue to build on the investment you’ve made, and we protect that investment through our program into 2026. That’s why we’re taking so much time so that As we work to be open and transparent with partners about the requirements of the new value index and what it ultimately means in this new Cisco 360 Partner Program, we will work with all of our partners to ensure they are playing at a high level. That price index is as high as possible,” he said.
Cisco 360 will also include the Splunk Partnerverse program, which will be merged into the new program over the next 15 months, Clark said.
Additionally, there will be incentives that will allow partners to delve deeper into networking, security and observability, he said.
âWe have the expertise in security as well as observability that will be honed â to protect the investment â ââthat will allow Splunk partners who have made that investment in their journey to be able to bring that investment into the Cisco Partner Program , as well as Cisco partners who have begun investing in Splunk, allowing them to add that investment to the Cisco 360 Partner Program.”
honoring heritage
Clark said, while Cisco 360 is a major improvement over the company’s existing partner programming structure, the company will honor its history of hardware and networking, which remains central to Cisco, while helping elevate these classic Cisco partners. .
,[We’re] I am thinking of presenting this concept of value. So, transactional, but with the ability to build capabilities and how do we really manage the lifecycle and overall practice maturity, looking at the investments that partners can make in skills and training and putting some value on that Can, looking at overall performance metrics and connecting things the ability to run, expand, adopt, renew, accelerate, [which is] This is a big part of our service strategy,â he said of the biggest change to the partner program in three decades.
To help partners transition, Cisco also unveiled $80 million in new partner investment and enablement, of which $60 million will be invested in supporting eligible partners with benefits including all-access Cisco U membership for skills development and certification Will go to. The company said the additional $20 million will fund quarterly training programs for all partners, focusing on AI, security and networking through self-paced learning, hands-on labs and continuing education credits.
“We’re really trying to make sure that, again, all investments are protected and that we’re giving partners enough runway and lead time to establish themselves in the new designations,” Clark said.
“Our goal is to help MSPs grow by offering new services that allow them to differentiate and expand their offerings,” says Bob VanKirk, CEO of SonicWall.
After making three acquisitions in four months and no M&A activity for 14 years, cybersecurity vendor SonicWall has one goal in mind: providing MSP-friendly solutions.
This acquisition was driven by the need to enhance its security capabilities in response to the emerging cybersecurity landscape.
“We were lagging behind in some areas like security services, endpoint management and cloud-native capabilities,” Bob VanKirk, CEO of the Milpitas, Calif.-based company, told CRN. âThe acquisitions were necessary to hold. More importantly, we ensured that these acquisitions were in line with our partner-first model, ensuring they remain MSP friendly.â
In those four months between 2023 and 2024, SonicWall acquired banyan security, solutions given And trapmine.
Today, the company has approximately 1,700 employees; 17,000 to 20,000 participants; And according to VanKirk, its revenue is between $300 million and $400 million. One hundred percent of SonicWall’s business is conducted through the channel.
âOur focus is on our partners,â VanKirk said. âWe are 100 percent committed to the channel model, and our goal is to support MSPs by providing a platform that enables them to grow. While we have rich IP and a strong heritage, our relentless focus on meeting the needs of our partners is what really sets us apart.
Here’s what VanKirk said about the acquisitions, the company’s rapid growth and its strategy into 2025. SonicWall has undergone a significant change in recent years. What is the reason behind this change and how has it affected your growth strategy?
When I stepped into the CEO role two years ago, I focused on returning to my roots by doubling down on our partners. SonicWall evolved into a 100 percent channel-centric company and I wanted to get back to that. We spent the first few months simply listening to partner feedback and it shaped our strategy in three key areas: broadening our offerings, enabling open integration for MSPs, and revamping our partner program, including offering monthly billing options. Give. The company made three acquisitions in just four months after not doing any M&A activity for 14 years. What was the driving force behind that rapid sequence of acquisitions and how do they align with your overall strategy?
We were lagging behind in some areas like security services, endpoint management, and cloud-native capabilities. Acquisitions were necessary to catch up. More importantly, we ensured that these acquisitions were consistent with our partner-first model, ensuring that they remained MSP friendly. Our goal was to provide the technology to partners while allowing them to white-label and offer these solutions as their own solutions.
We now focus on integrating the acquired capabilities. This is part of our effort to make our solutions more MSP-friendly and allow ease of use across both SonicWall and third-party systems. So what is your M&A strategy going forward?
While we are primarily focused on integrating the three recent acquisitions, we are always keeping an eye on the evolving threat landscape. Our goal is to continue to grow organically and through strategic acquisitions where necessary. What are your top priorities for 2025 in terms of SonicWall’s strategic vision?
Our priority is to continue supporting our partners by enhancing our open platform and integrating additional capabilities. Our goal is to help MSPs grow by offering new services that allow them to differentiate and expand their offerings. It is important for us to continue to provide solutions that allow MSPs to make money and grow. How is the company addressing the growing demand for cloud-edge security and managed security services?
We’re leaning toward managed security services at scale. Many mid-market and SMB companies can’t provide 24/7 cybersecurity coverage, so our MSPs step up. Our goal is to help MSPs provide round-the-clock security without the need to be physically present. Additionally, many companies are looking for hybrid cloud solutions and we are providing that flexibility so they can make the transition at their own pace. How do AI and machine learning factor into the future of SonicWall’s cybersecurity solutions?
Machine learning has been an integral part of our threat detection and prevention for years. We respond to millions of potential threats across our 1.2 million endpoints. We’re also using AI in support, engineering and marketing to increase productivity and enhance the experience of our partners. For example, our new platform will feature a Sonicbot to help partners with questions and solutions. As a CEO, what keeps you up at night?
The constantly evolving cyber threats are my biggest concern. The speed, volume and complexity of threats are increasing and the race to stay ahead of them is constant. Ensuring our partners and customers are safe 24/7 is core to everything we do. What is your message to partners about what the future holds for SonicWall?
Be vocal. We love to hear what we’re doing well, but more importantly, we need to know where we’re falling short. Listening to our partners is what inspires us to be better, smarter, and faster.
‘Customers are not suffering from a lack of technology options. They’re struggling with ROI, adoption, management, new outsourcing models, all these things. and the changing landscape of ransomware and security hacking. The scenario has changed. We see customers struggling like never before. So we’re bringing in Bridge to accelerate that approach and add maturity and acceleration,â says Jeff Mullarkey, CEO of RKON.
Cyber ââSecurity MSP RKON Technologies It said Tuesday it has acquired Bridge Security Advisors, a solutions provider focused on cloud security, governance risk and compliance (GRC), and identity and access management.
The acquisition, for which no dollar value was provided, is intended to strengthen the security offerings RKON provides to its enterprise customers, particularly as they go through their own mergers and acquisitions, said Jeff, CEO of Chicago-based RKON. Mullarkey said.
âAny time businesses go through a transformational moment, the underlying challenge is often around security,â Mullarkey (pictured above) told CRN. âHow can we do this safely? There is fear of adoption and how you get momentum to value, you move towards transformational change with a security background. We learned long ago that whatever we do, we have to proceed with safety. âThis was really the tip of the spear to help organizations prepare for change, whatever that change may be.â [Related: Panelists Weigh In On AI, Security: âTheyâre Really Perfectly Intertwinedâ]
As RKON provided enterprise security for years, however, some of its larger customers began doing M&A activity, Mullarkey said.
“So we focused most of our time and energy on all the M&A work that’s been going on, especially over the last 10 years,” he said. âWe have developed a practice of right-sizing a portion of our service to serve the private equity market. Not only does it serve our enterprise customers, but it is one of the highest growth markets over the last 18 months.
RKON sees the market being somewhat deprived of a transformative security approach.
âCustomers are not suffering from a lack of technology options,â he said. âThey are struggling with ROI, adoption, management, new outsourcing models, all these things. and the changing landscape of ransomware and security hacking. The scenario has changed. We see customers struggling like never before. So we’re bringing in the bridge to accelerate that approach and bring maturity and speed to it.”
Bridge gives RKON a proven, vetted, brilliant group of individuals who have a stellar track record of helping enterprises drive transformation from an operational and ROI perspective, Mullarkey said.
âWe still see 30 [percent] Or 40 percent is spent on IT security and ultimately goes to waste and the money is wasted,” he said. âWe think the Bridge team can bring this to the table by focusing on GRC (governance, risk, and compliance), IAM (identity and access management), and ZTNA (zero trust network access).â
Mullarkey said Bridge brings both expanded security capabilities and unmatched senior security professionals to RKON.
RKON grew up with a legacy of transformation and since 1998 has been really this boutique, large systems integral integrator that really provides a close touch to companies’ transformation,” said Brian Jeffords, chief revenue officer at Bridge Security Advisors.
Jeffords (pictured below) explains, “As RKON transformed into a technology services provider that offers capabilities similar to a large systems integrator, it has done so at a more boutique level that provides curated services or vendor-agnostic consulting services.” Can do.” CRN. âAnd I think what’s important to understand about RKON is that it can continually refine and build out the mid-tier enterprise.â
This is important because, while governance, risk and compliance have always been important for the largest enterprises, smaller enterprises are now being held to the same standards as the Fortune 1000, regardless of which vendor they use and which regulatory framework. Follow up, Jeffords said.
âBy acquiring Bridge, RKON becomes a senior cybersecurity pure consultant with knowledge of all the mainstream technologies, integrations and best practices that help ensure these medium-sized enterprises are protected. In the past security was always an add-on, but now it is integrated into every technology. So it is up to a consulting practice or someone who understands the market to try to maximize the ROI of their technology along with security and implementing the right tools to minimize the risk of ransomware while maintaining compliance .
Bridge has always brought a vendor-agnostic approach to security, Mullarkey said, and approach that isn’t always easy to develop, especially in the beginning.
“We go with the best solution, and whether the vendors like it or not, that’s what we’re helping our customers with,” he said. This is a very unique method. It’s hard to maintain that line, and hard to find organizations with a similar philosophy, which was one reason RKON was so interested in bridge. Bridge had built an amazingly successful business with that purposeful approach. In fact, this was one of the main reasons why so many of his customers worked closely with him.â
RKON, which had no history of making prior acquisitions, asked one of its board members, Pamela Fusco, former chief information security officer of Splunk, about Bridge, Mullarkey said.
“We invited him to join our board about eight months ago and he accepted,” he said. âThey have been instrumental in helping us grow and we spoke to them about how we want to accelerate the pace of our growth and we are looking for like-minded organizations to partner with us,â he said. Are doing.” âHe told us that he has an ideal organization in mind whose functionalities can be added to RKON and which has a very good high-growth trajectory and business expansion plan. We can plug them in and really take advantage of the volume they bring to the table and the expertise they bring to the table. Classic one plus one equals three. So he introduced us and here we are today.â
Both RKON and Bridge are profitable companies, but Mullarkey and Jeffords declined to disclose specific numbers.
Mullarkey said that in February RKON received a private equity investment from Post Capital to help accelerate growth and scale while adding new services and capabilities. He said this includes more acquisitions in the future, although none are currently in the works.
âWe tend to talk about cybersecurity and AI as two separate things. I don’t think itâs an overlapping Venn diagram. I think they are a circle together. You really can’t have these conversations separate and distinct,â says David Powell, vice president of sales strategy Pax8, during a panel at the XChange Best of Breed conference.
The growth in AI is leading to a corresponding need for new ways to secure customersâ businesses.
Thatâs the word from a panel of MSP technology executives at this weekâs XChange Best of Breed conference in Atlanta, hosted by CRN parent The Channel Company.
The panel was moderated by Tom Colleary, president of F3 Technology Partners, a West Hartford, Conn.-based solution provider. He was joined on stage by David Powell, vice president of sales strategy at Greenwood Village, Colo.-based Pax8; Royi Barnea, vice president of channel sales at Herzliya, Israel-based Cynomi; and John Pagliuca, president and CEO of Burlington, Mass.-based N-able.
[Related: Cohesity CEO On AI, Data Protection, Data Insights And Impacts On The Channel]
Even as AI and GenAI have opened new business opportunities for MSPsâ customers, they have also opened new vulnerabilities, according to the panelists.
âThe new vulnerability is generative AI,â Pagliuca said. âBasically, all the threat actors are getting much more sophisticated. Theyâre able to do what theyâre trying to do at a much more sophisticated level. Social engineering has been a big part, right? Social engineering is getting more sophisticated, all for the same reason: to gain access to your customers or your technicians, even more importantly, their identity.â
Michael Haley, partner and co-founder of Edge Solutions, an Alpharetta, Ga.-based MSP, told CRN that the panel really put the focus on the importance of education when it comes to AI.
âAs Pax8âs Powell said, we have to educate and create awareness in and around AI in your organization,â he said. âWe need to understand the opportunities, but also understand the vulnerabilities and the risks, and build policies and standards around that. But more than anything, educate, educate, educate. Powell said AI is being thrown around like a set of Legos, as in, âHere are the Legos, now build something.â And it makes you realize there are certain things that we in our organization need to do from day one to help clients understand the opportunities around AI. Everything has to start internally at our company first.â
The panel had a lot to say about AI and security, as well as the threat caused by inaction on the part of MSPs who may not be moving fast enough to respond to the latest vulnerabilities. Read on to learn more. From a client and end-user standpoint, itâs easy to get overwhelmed by cybersecurity in general. How does AI start to factor into their thinking processes? Powell: I feel like the industryâs done a poor job around use cases. I feel like, to some degree, they come out with this big box of Legos in front of everybody and say, âHereâs AI. You can build all sorts of cool stuff.â Great. Like what can I build? âCool stuff.â Well, like what kind of cool things? âAre you not enthusiastic about this?â
Instead, they should be going in and saying, âHereâs a hospital, a fire station, a police station. Which one of these lines up with your use case?â I think that there is a gap now in how some people talk about the professional services piece that needs to go in and how to productize that, shrink-wrap these use cases, and take them to other customers that you may have.
The other thing is, we tend to talk about cybersecurity and AI as two separate things. I donât think itâs an overlapping Venn diagram. I think they are a circle together. You really canât have these conversations separate and distinct. Theyâre really perfectly intertwined. What do I mean? If somebody in HR a long time ago downloaded some employee data that had everyoneâs salary information and all kinds of stuff, they may have just dropped it out in the F: drive somewhere. No big deal. Well, thatâs now a needle in the haystack. No oneâs going to find that rooting through the F: drive. But if you train Microsoft Copilot on all of the information in your system, and that file that doesnât have any permissions on it, it suddenly gets ingested. Now it can be queried inside Copilot. Most companies havenât really kind of thought through what they need to do from a data governance standpoint. What do they need to do for AI readiness when theyâre just throwing this out there and tinkering with it without really understanding the implications? Pagliuca: AI is not new, right? The large language models have been around. Theyâre getting more sophisticated. Generative AI is the layer on top. Thatâs whatâs creating all of this more recent buzz. I agree with David. If you go back to those three dimensions [latest and greatest tools, control team access, focus on security], you want to make sure if your vendor is using AI that theyâre making your team more efficient, making them more secure, making themselves more secure. But also really important: What is their policy? How are they using that data? Are they really transparent with you? At N-able, weâre really transparent and post our policy position on AI so our MSP community knows how weâre using that data, what we do with that data, and we actually have them opt in.
As an MSP, educate, educate. Make sure your teams, when they’re putting in the black box, know where that black box is. You might want to actually have a separate instance in your own environment so that data is not actually going out into the wild. You can actually control it. We at N-able use AI. Our developers use AI to make sure the code is more efficient and secure. Our sales and marketing teams use it in a restricted way. And our product has AI. Our mail security offering, our DR [disaster recovery] offering, our password management solution, all have AI. Why? Because Davidâs right. Thereâs no Venn diagram. You want to see if thereâs any anomalous behavior or activity that maybe human eyes canât pick up. You want to make it more efficient. You want to make it more secure. And education is the big part. Barnea: I agree with the need for education and can expand on it. You can hear from my accent that Iâm from Israel, which is a cybersecurity nation, a very small community. We see a huge trend around AI and security. Letâs be honest. AI is not a new thing. But I donât think we really know all the vulnerabilities and all the messes that the bad guys will find. Everything in life is good and bad. Itâs how you use it. AI can be awesome. Itâs how you use it and how you prevent risk. You can prevent risk by using traditional tools, via software development, or connecting with other tools. But itâs highly important that we be educated about it. And if you do any type of processing, you need standardization to look across the board. Davidâs example is great, but did HR or the lawyer know exactly what system they have? How are they connected to the cloud? How is data invested? How is data transferred? Thatâs something we need to take into consideration. I think weâre not yet, as an industry, exposed to all vulnerabilities. We need to be. Powell: I was a big car guy. Subscribed to Car and Driver in the â90s. When the Nissan 240SX came out, they ran this ad that said, âThere are âsports carsâ and there are sports cars. We make the kind without the quotes.â Right now, youâre getting a lot of âAIâ and a lot of AI. Iâm sure you all probably saw Samsung has washing machines with AI. No, itâs not. Itâs just simply sensing how much stuff you have in there and figuring out how much water to use. Itâs not training a large language model or anything like that.
I do think our customers expect you to educate them. Our customers are bombarded with AI buzzword stuff. I do think there should be some basic education around what AI actually is and where the data is. The buzzword is so overused right now. You know these vulnerabilities are going to be out there. What are you guys doing to try to pre-empt them? Or are we going to do continue waiting for the next one and figure it out afterward? Pagliuca: The new vulnerability is generative AI. Basically, all the threat actors are getting much more sophisticated. Theyâre able to do what theyâre trying to do at a much more sophisticated level. Social engineering has been a big part, right? Social engineering is getting more sophisticated, all for the same reason: to gain access to your customers or your technicians, even more importantly, their identity. Weâre seeing a lot of that. At N-able, weâre really focusing on giving MSPs the ability to aggregate all this telemetry because youâre not necessarily going to protect everything. We want to make sure if youâre not able to protect, you can detect if there is an incident. Our Cove data protection allows MSPs to recover very quickly, and thatâs an important part. Our XDR [extended detection and response] platform actually allows MSPs to ingest data from their endpoint, from the network, and from their cloud applications in a way that aggregates it all, correlates it all, and then gives the MSP the action. And the MSP can choose to actually have eyes on glass and take action themselves, or we can remediate for them, if they want the MDR [managed detection and response] service on top. So itâs providing them the tools, but also that awareness, and if they want to, we can take care of that action for them themselves. Barnea: Weâre in the virtual CISO space. We added, I think seven months ago, very advanced assessment with AI, which is very important. We have already updated that. Those assessments help generate automatic policies, which can help a lot in some standardizations. And those assessments are giving great tips and advice on how you can basically use tools that maybe you have in your stack to check the processes and vulnerabilities of any tools that are related to it. We have AI. Weâre very proud of that. And weâre going on the next generation of AI next year. Powell: I donât know if your end users, executives or founders know what the risks look like. Take ElevenLabs. I do a lot of public speaking, so thereâs a lot of videos of me on YouTube. You can go and train ElevenLabs on my voice. I got a text last year from John Street, who’s the founder of Pax8, and it was not from John Street. The English was kind of broken, and said he needed $5,000 worth of Amazon gift cards. And the company sent out an email saying if you get a text from John saying he needs Amazon gift cards, ignore it. And I replied, âWhat do I do with all these gift cards?â And they were like, âWait a minute, man.â
But if somebody trained Johnâs voice and I got a cellphone call and it sounds like John, and heâs like, âHey, Dave, Iâm in distress, I need something, something, something,â I’m much more likely to respond to that because it sounds like John. A buddy of mine is a private banker and works with high-net-worth people, and they call all the time saying, âI need to move a million dollars from here to here.â He knows what the voices sound like, and he does it. And they were talking about how theyâre going to have to go back almost to the horse and buggy days with a pass phrase that you have to say that canât be written down anywhere and can’t be in an online system.
Itâs important to educate your users that a new frontier is coming quickly, that the language in ransomware emails is not going to be broken English anymore. Itâs going to be very good. The voice on the other end of the phone may or may not be [someone you know]. I think overall awareness of this has to grow because the weakest link in all the changes John alluded to earlier is dumb humans, right? And thereâs no good technological solution for dumb humans. As long as somebodyâs willing to give away information via email or via phone, public awareness is going to be super important. Whatâs the No. 1 threat out there? Whatâs keeping you awake at night? Powell: I would say that the No. 1 threat that weâre seeing with our partners and user customers is just inaction. Letâs be honest with you. When you really look at it, a lot of your small and medium businesses in particular feel that their business or home is in the nice part of town because no one really talks about cybersecurity threats and impacts on them. I think small and medium businesses tend to look at TheWall Street Journal or watch the news and see issues at big companies like United Healthcare and think, âWell, thatâs not us.â Itâs because no one really talks about it. And so thereâs somewhat of a stigma around cybersecurity incidents in the small- and medium- business space. I think our job, to a large degree, is to educate small and medium businesses about what is actually going on around cybersecurity and help them come to terms with the fact that their home, if you will, is not in a gated golf community. Itâs actually in the worst part of town. And if your house is in the worst part of town, you would take different measures to protect your house and assets versus how you would do it if it was in a great part of town. Inaction on the part of the small and medium business esis something we see a lot. They just donât understand their risks, and they are little concerned about what they can do to respond to it. Barnea: I think itâs always the end user at the end of the day. Itâs a never-ending story. But weâre hearing a lot about third parties as well. Thereâs a lot of concerns about third parties connecting to the end client, and that can be a back door to the organization. So thereâs a lot of vulnerability there. And of course, human aspects will come in play to that as well. Pagliuca: Itâs tough for you folks. There are three dimensions that you always have to deal with. One, itâs the vendors youâre using, making sure theyâre using the latest and greatest and then making sure their protocols and what theyâre doing is secure. Two, itâs your teams and folks getting access. We all know, as David pointed out, youâre in a tough neighborhood. Theyâre going after your teamâs credentials because they know those are the golden keys to gain access to all your clients, right? Folks are focusing more on technicians and using a more modern approach to gain access to your technicians so they can gain access to your systems. Third, your customers, and making sure that youâre actually looking at their security when you do your planning for next year. Security is both an opportunity and a threat to you all, and you should make sure youâre looking to differentiate yourself as an opportunity. And to Davidâs point, the inaction, a lot of itâs due to a labor shortage and lack of expertise, and so a lot of MSPs donât really know where to get started looking at this. And so what weâre finding is some of the inaction that Davidâs seeing is due to that lack of knowing where to start, but also just the lack of competent staffing to make sure that you and your team will be secured and can help customers be secure. Letâs expand on that a bit. Is that inaction because of processes? Pride? Is it ignorance? Laziness? Or is it just unawareness? Powell: I think a lot of it is lack of awareness, and I think that a lot of our community is more comfortable talking about speeds and feeds than technology in the MSP space in particular. If I talk with the CEO of a law firm, he might say, âYeah, Dave, I want to work with your MSP. That sounds great. But you really need to see Tom. Heâs my techie nerd guy.â So now all discussions need to be repeated. But at some point, if I come to you and say, âHey, you need to deploy MFA,â and Tom says, âNo, I donât really want to do that because we got too much other stuff going on,â well, now he just made a risk decision for the company thatâs not his job to make. Thatâs the CEOâs decision to make. And so I think a lot of solution providers allow themselves to get pinned into that technical corner to where technical conversations are being had but with people are not equipped, paid for, empowered, to make risk decisions on behalf of the company. Pagliuca: Iâve been in the space for 12 years. Weâre seeing the divergence of what it means to be an MSP today has increased. We still see what John probably referred to as the âtrunk slammers.â Some of that might be ignorance or lack of action. But for this room, ignorance is not the problem. You all know it. You all see it as an opportunity. But itâs difficult because of all the different telemetry that youâre seeing, whether itâs from your endpoints, from your network, from your SaaS applications. And for a lot of shops and folks who are even in this room, I think itâs hard to aggregate all of that telemetry and take action on it in an automated way thatâs still efficient. And so I think the problem varies depending on where you are in the spectrum.
Going forward, thereâs going to be haves and have-nots in this industry, and the folks that are actually embracing the right policies, the right standards, the right technologies, will continue to grow. Frankly, unfortunately, thereâll be a lot of folks left behind because theyâre not investing. Barnea: What weâre seeing as vendors sometimes is that we lack the ability to give the service providers, the solution providers, the tools and the simple wording to educate their end clients sometimes. True. And we need to simplify it. Weâre not working a lot on messages. For us in the vCISO space, CMMC [cybersecurity maturity model certification] is important. If you start reading articles, simplify it so you can help the solution providers educate their clients on it. Educating them will make their lives easier when it comes to delivering those services. This is something vendors can help a lot. Everyone is looking to be exposed to whatâs going on with technology. Weâll talk about AI, about compliance, about many topics.
For the week ending October 18, CRN will take a look at companies that have brought their ‘A’ game to the channel, including Presidio, Intel, AMD, Google Cloud, Netskope, Cyra and Inforcer.
Week ending October 18
Topping this week’s Came to Win list is channel superstar Presidio to ink a Strategic Collaborative Agreement (SCA), which takes its relationship with cloud giant Amazon Web Services to the next level.
The list also includes Intel and AMD, who, despite their long-standing rivalry, this week launched an initiative together to expand the ecosystem for the x86 instruction set architecture. Google Cloud makes this week’s list for two moves: introducing new generative AI development training opportunities for partners and introducing a new Earning Center portal to help partners track earned and potential incentives.
Data security companies Netscope and Cyra are both here to make smart acquisitions. And Microsoft-focused ISV Enforcer secured $19 million in Series A funding to support its rapid growth, product development efforts, and expansion into the US market.
Presidio signs ‘huge’ AWS deal to boost GenAI, sales and innovation
Channel superstar Presidio has this week doubled down on its Amazon Web Services business by signing a strategic collaboration agreement (SCA) with the cloud leader that will boost funding resources, increase employee numbers and drive new industry-specific solutions. will run, including solutions that incorporate generative AI.
From new GenAI funding to additional go-to-market and proof-of-concept funding through AWS’s Migration Acceleration Program (MAP), Presidio’s new SCA This is a big win for the New York-based channel giant.
The ultimate goal of AWS and Presidio with SCA is to create innovative industry-specific solutions for joint customers around the world in industries such as healthcare, life sciences, gaming, financial services, and sports, media and entertainment.
Chris Cagnazzi, Presidio’s chief innovation officer, explains, “Over this three-year time period, probably 80 people have been hired, specifically between AWS and Presidio, to focus on reaching the goals that we jointly have.” Want to get it formally.” crnâIt’s industry-focused and it’s generative AI focused.â
SCA will combine Presidio’s consulting services with AWS technologies to drive business results for customers. The goal is to accelerate customers’ migration, modernization, and optimization of their data and applications to better take advantage of new technologies like generative AI and machine learning. One such service is Presidio’s Rapid Innovation methodology that helps customers use AWS GenAI services around AI-assisted software development, data modernization, AI-enabled self-service, and intelligent document processing.
Intel-AMD alliance to ‘shape the future’ of x86 architecture
Archive Intel and AMD won praise this week for their effort to expand the ecosystem for the x86 instruction set architecture, which has “served as the foundation of modern computing” for more than 40 years.
This week both companies announced the creation of A new x86 ecosystem advisory group “To shape the future of x86 and foster developer innovation through a more unified set of instructions and architectural interfaces.” “This is expected to increase compatibility, predictability and stability across x86 product offerings,” the two companies said.
Intel and AMD have already enlisted several IT industry giants for the initiative, including Microsoft, Dell Technologies, HP Inc., Hewlett Packard Enterprise, Lenovo and Google, as well as Linux creator Linus Torvalds.
Other founding members include VMware parent company Broadcom, Facebook parent company Meta, Oracle, IBM-owned Red Hat, and Epic Games founder Tim Sweeney. in an interview with crn Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang presented its support For x86 effort.
Intel and AMD said industry-wide collaboration around the future of the x86 instruction set architecture is necessary due to evolving developments such as dynamic AI workloads, custom chiplet designs, and advances in 3-D chip packaging and system architecture.
Intel and AMD’s x86 CPU businesses have faced a growing threat from the Arm instruction set architecture, which has prompted consumer tech giant Apple, mobile chip designer Qualcomm and cloud computing giants like Amazon Web Services, Microsoft and Google to design their own CPUs. Made capable. PC and cloud market.
Google offers new AI development courses, Income Hub platform to Cloud partners
Google Cloud added four new learning paths this week to help developers build generative artificial intelligence skills like developing applications, managing and securing machine learning models, curating content, and analyzing data â all from The company’s solutions are particularly important for providers bringing AI products and services to market.
Erin Rifkin, Managing Director of Google Cloud Learning, said: crn That “AI is the biggest opportunity the channel has ever seen, and we’re moving as fast as we can to provide partners with the training they need to be able to meet that demand.” learning paths According to Google, it features intensive courses that guide learners to gain proficiency before testing their skills in a real-life challenge lab. Developers who complete practical training are awarded skill badges to showcase their expertise on resumes and social media, according to the vendor, which has more than 100,000 partners worldwide.
Google Cloud also introduced a new this week “Earning Center” platform which helps partners track earned and potential incentives, with plans for tracking of Workspace and Security Operations incentives in the coming weeks and chat experiences powered by artificial intelligence “in the coming months.”
Colleen Kapse, Google Cloud’s vice president of channels and partner programs, explained that this is part of Google Cloud’s move to empower platform service partners and simplify payment for pilots, migrations, after-sales services and other incentives. crn,
Data security providers Netscope, Cyra make strategic acquisitions
Data security developers Netscope and Cyra both feature in this week’s list of wins make major acquisitions Which focuses on Data Protection Position Management (DSPM) and Data Loss Prevention (DLP) technology categories.
DSPM provides visibility into the locations and security of data stored in an organization’s cloud environment. This could provide a basis for locking data in the cloud at a time when cybercriminals and nation-state hackers alike are focusing on data theft.
NetScope acquired DSPM startup Desera, which the SASE platform provider said will enhance the data security capabilities of its NetScope One platform. Meanwhile, Cyra said the acquisition of Trail Security significantly elevates Cyra’s AI-powered platform through âAI-enhanced DLP technology.â
Microsoft-focused ISV Enforcer secures $19M funding, aims to expand into US market
UK-based software company Inforcer makes this week’s list Secures $19 Million in Series A Funding To support its rapid growth, product development efforts and expansion into the US market.
Enforcer, which specializes in developing software to manage and automate Microsoft 365 policies across multiple tenants, has big growth ambitions for the US market. About 30 percent of the company’s revenue comes from US-based MSPs, but its co-founders are hoping to change that within the next two years and are aiming to generate 70 percent of their business from the US.
âWith this funding, we’re really focused on brand exposure and expansion in the US,â explained Jamie Daum, co-founder and CEO of Inforcer. crn In an exclusive interview. âWe are attending major industry events and building relationships within MSP communities.â
The funding round, led by Meritech Capital, will go toward tripling the size of Inforcer’s product development team, growing its customer experience division, and building out its MSP-focused community. Daum said a “significant portion” of the funding will be dedicated to accelerating product development.
The company has already seen significant growth, growing from eight employees to nearly 50 in less than a year. With an office in California and seven US-based employees, they plan to double their headcount with this funding.
“With this funding, we’re really focused on brand exposure and expansion in the US,” says Jamie Daum, co-founder and CEO of Inforcer. ‘We are attending major industry events and building relationships within MSP communities.’
UK-based software company Inforcer has secured $19 million in Series A funding to support its rapid growth, product development and expansion into the US market.
Enforcer, which specializes in developing software to manage and automate Microsoft 365 Policies, among many tenants, has large growth ambitions that are largely geared toward the US market. About 30 percent of the company’s revenue comes from US-based MSPs, but its co-founders are hoping to change that within the next two years and are aiming to generate 70 percent of their business from the US.
âWith this funding, we’re really focused on brand exposure and expansion in the US,â Jamie Daum, co-founder and CEO of Inforcer, told CRN in an exclusive interview. âWe are attending major industry events and building relationships within MSP communities.â
The funding round, led by Meritech Capital, will go toward tripling the size of Inforcer’s product development team, growing its customer experience division, and building out its MSP-focused community. The company has already seen significant growth, growing from eight employees to nearly 50 in less than a year. With an office in California and seven US-based employees, they plan to double their headcount with this funding. [Related: Microsoft Adds AI Assistant To English-Language Partner Center]
“A significant portion of the funding will go toward product development,” Daum said. âWe have an incredibly passionate, small team that is delivering great results and now we’re looking to grow that team and accelerate feature releases. We’re also focused on community education and helping MSPs navigate the complexities of Microsoft’s tools and become experts much faster.”
Co-founder Will Connor told CRN that the company is “really careful” about who they hire because they want candidates who are the right cultural fit.
âWe’ve got a strong team that really cares about solving MSP challenges,â Connor said. âOur experience on both the vendor and MSP sides gives us the insight to build the right product and that is why we are growing so fast.â
Enforcer currently serves approximately 300 MSPs and aims to grow that number to more than 2,000 within the next 12 to 18 months. The company is also preparing for a significant change taking place in the MSP sector, especially in the area of ââsecurity.
âThere has been a sea change in the MSP sector since we started,â Dam said. âWe moved from break-fix to managed services, managed security services. âWe believe the next step is managed Microsoft services or managed Microsoft security services.â
Because of this, the company sees itself as a premier partner for MSPs looking to navigate the complexities of Microsoft’s technology stack.
âWith our platform, MSPs can provide proactive services on top of Microsoft licensing, and we will be able to help MSPs on their journey to leverage more of the Microsoft stack,â said Daum. “Our goal is to build a great American community, an active community where people share and help each other solve complex Microsoft challenges.”
Dan Brinkman, COO of Curated Technology Services at Salt Lake City-based MSP Summit Technology, is using Inforcer to address challenges in scaling services while maintaining consistency and compliance in Microsoft 365 tenant configurations.
âEnforcer’s automation capabilities, policy management and compliance enforcement tools have been helpful in streamlining our processes, making them more efficient and less prone to errors,â he told CRN in an email.
He said Enforcer’s “rapid delivery” of new features and their commitment to meeting his company’s needs “has been extraordinary.”
âWith the additional funding, we look forward to continued product development and deeper relationships with Enforcerâs growing US-based team,â he said.
Cisco CEO Chuck Robbins talks about having a leg-up over HPE-Juniper, cross-selling Splunk opportunities, Ciscoâs bullish AI strategy and his thoughts on the U.S. economy in 2025 with the upcoming presidential election.
Cisco CEO Chuck Robbins is confident that his companyâs longtime networking leadership will continue regardless of new competition from HPE with its pending Juniper Networks acquisition.
âYou look at the combination of networking and security and the importance of those two coming togetherâwhich they (HPE) do not haveâand you look at data center infrastructure, you look at campus networking with wireless, with all of the observability, the security and everything that we haveâI mean, we have more technology that brings more value to our customers in the infrastructure layer than anybody else,â said Ciscoâs Robbins on stage at the 2024 XChange Best of Breed Conference today in Atlanta. HPE CEO Antonio Neri said at the conference this week that with HPEâs upcoming $14 billion acquisition of Juniper that âwe are becoming a networking company at the core. Something that probably Cisco has forgotten now for a little bit.â
When asked for a response, Robbins said with a smirk: âWell, we forgot more about networking than they’ll probably know about networking.â [Related: Cisco CEO Chuck Robbins: Moving Fast To Win The AI Battle]
Robbins also spoke about Ciscoâs $28 billion blockbuster acquisition of Splunk in terms of its channel partner and integration strategy.
âWell, when you spend $28 billion dollars, you want to be a little careful that you don’t screw something up,â Robbins said. âSo we are being thoughtful about it. You have to get through the core fundamentals. It’s like playing sports: you got to get all the foundational and the fundamentals right before you start doing a lot of fancy things. So what we implemented this year is we have a bonus program in place for the Cisco sales force to simply open the door and introduce the Splunk sales team to the CIO of any customers that aren’t using Splunk.â
Robbins also chatted about the upcoming 2024 U.S. presidential election and the potential impact on the economy.
âI think our system is built in a way that restricts radical policy shifts,â said Robbins.
In an interview at XChange with CRNâs Jennifer Follett and Steven Burke, Robbins talks about Cisco networking besting HPE-Juniper, Ciscoâs AI strategy, the Cisco-Splunk strategy and AIâs future.
What is the biggest difference between the Cisco-Splunk networking story and the HPE-Juniper networking story?
I did read the article. Look, the difference is we didn’t need [to buy] a networking company, but what our customers are looking for is they’re trying to make sense of all the data they have.
And given the footprint that we have and the platform that Splunk has, if you think about all the insights that can be delivered from networking devices, all the threat intelligence that we get from Talos, all the intelligence we get from technologies like from ThousandEyesâand if you put all that together with all the log data and everything else that Splunk currently sees, then you apply a layer of AI on top of itâwe think we can give our customers greater insights about what’s happening in their infrastructure, what’s happening with their applications, what’s happening in their security, and the security of their infrastructure.
We think we can do that more effectively for our customers better than anybody else. That’s what it really brings to us. [Robbinsâ answer continues into next slide.]
HPE CEO Antonio Neri mentioned when he was here that he believes Cisco may have forgotten that it’s a networking company at heart. What is your response to critics who say you’ve taken your eye off the networking ball?
Well, we forgot more about networking than they’ll probably know about networking.
I thought it was interesting that [HPE CEO Neri said] Juniper excelled into campus, and they have 2.6 percent market share in campus. HPE actually has more.
So I guess they think more of Juniper campus portfolio than they do their own.
But look, we have the most comprehensive portfolio, whether you’re looking at cloud infrastructure today, AI infrastructure under training models, the technology that we’re going to deliver for an end-to-end stack for how our enterprise customers are going to deploy AI applications with HyperFabric.
You look at the combination of networking and security and the importance of those two coming togetherâwhich they (HPE) do not haveâand you look at data center infrastructure, you look at campus networking, with wireless, with all of the observability, the security and everything that we haveâI mean, we have more technology that brings more value to our customers in the infrastructure layer than anybody else.
Ciscoâs gone through so many evolutions as a company. So what is the elevator pitch of what the Cisco identity is today?
If you really think about it, we are the only company who can bring networking, observability, security to our customersâall integrated together.
We think that all of those things coming together are more important than they ever have been, and that’s what we’re going to deliver: a secure networking company that actually delivers incredible capabilitiesâwhether it’s a AI ready data center, future proof workplace, or an underlying layer of digital resilience that we’re going to deliver. With the Splunk acquisition, you brought in former Splunk CEO Gary Steele. What changes are you looking for him to make, and what impact do you want him to have on the combined Cisco-Splunk sales and channel strategy?
Gary’s great. Gary is an operator. He did a phenomenal job of running Splunk for the two years before we actually completed the acquisition. He’s done an amazing job.
He really excels at simplifying things. So our partners will appreciate that.
The teams are working on evolving our partner program right now, which we’re going to talk about at Cisco Partner Summit in a couple of weeks.
He’s looking at simplifying our coverage models, simplifying the engagement model and really trying to help our teams just spend more time actually with partners and customers on a monthly basis. That’s what he’s focused on. I think he’s going to make a ton of progress this year.
What does Splunk do to the overall culture of Cisco? Is there some sort of âSplunk-ificationâ of Cisco going on as more Splunk folks come into leadership positions?
I don’t think there’s a âSplunk-ification.â That’s a good word though.
What you have is the same thing you have with any leader who comes in and is looking at anything through a fresh set of eyes. (Splunkâs CEO Steele) asked questions like, âWhy do we do that?â Which is always healthy.
There’s a beautiful six months of ignorance when you take a new job, because you can ask any question you want and he’s done that. He’s challenged us in some areas. He’s asked the right questions about why do we do this?
He’s actually got an incredible balance.
You would think that he would come in and want to push the Splunk portfolio across the entire sales force, and he reminds us quite regularly, âHey, just remember, we need these salespeople selling lots of network infrastructure. So let’s not distract them. Let’s stay focused.â So the biggest thing that he does, though, is he brings a fresh set of eyes.
Whatâs your take on the cross-sell opportunity between Cisco and Splunk?
Well, when you spend $28 billion dollars, you want to be a little careful that you don’t screw something up.
So we are being thoughtful about it. You have to get through the core fundamentals. It’s like playing sports: you got to get all the foundational and the fundamentals right before you start doing a lot of fancy things.
So what we implemented this year is we have a bonus program in place for the Cisco salesforce to simply open the door and introduce the Splunk sales team to the CIO of any customers that aren’t using Splunk. So just foundational, basic stuff.
At the same time, weâre getting all their employees into our systems and all those kinds of things, and doing all the hard work of doing a big integration that’s going on at the same time. So we’re going to move as fast as we possibly can, but not faster than we’re comfortable with.
From the partner perspective of not only the Cisco side or the Splunk side, but those who aren’t working with you at all yet and are now looking at this new Cisco-Splunk combination. What is the order of magnitude of opportunity here for those partners?
I would highly encourage all of you to look at Splunk and the security integration that we’re doing. The next generation SOC and the opportunity that our customers are obviously moving towards, I meanâsecurity is a massive data problem, and to the extent that we can help them actually leverage AI, leverage automation, to actually correlate these threats and get to the root of the problem faster, then they’re going to be more effective.
First of all, Splunk is highly concentrated in the upper end of the account base. They’re highly concentrated in the United States. So there’s a huge opportunity for us to expand.
They didn’t have a super robust partner program. They had a partner strategy and they worked with lots of partners, but it wasn’t quite as comprehensive.
This business is the services around it and helping customers get these SOCs built and get it up and running. So itâs quite good for the partners. As we continue to drive the integration across the security portfolio into Splunk, you’ll just see more and more opportunity as this evolves. And then the observability side of it as well.
Where are you going to make the investments to help partners cross the AI chasm and really deliver on this vision of security, observability and networking?
So you’re going to see this begin to roll out at the partner summit. What we have coming up from an AI perspective. We have our WebExOne event coming up. We got our partner summit. We have Cisco Live Asia. We have an AI event we’re doing in January. Then we have Cisco Live Europe and we have Cisco Live in the U.S.
We have this roadmap of product announcements across this space that are all going to be around AI that are leading with infrastructure, both compute and networking, and security. We’re obviously building in a lot of AI capabilities into our portfolio. We’re going to lay out the whole architecture at the partner summit a couple weeks.
You’ll see our incentive structure shift to align with that. Because it’s super important right nowâand this is something else Gary (Steele) believes in deeplyâthe incentives we put in place for our partners and our sales teamsâwe want them to stay aligned. When they’re aligned, we do really great things together. So we’ll be focused on making sure that’s true.
Cisco is really well prepared for this AI transition. Why is that and what do you see there thatâs critical to partners?
There’s a multitude of areas that we’re focused on in the AI space.
First of all, cloud infrastructure underneath the training model. So we’re deployed in three of the four as Ethernet underneath the GPU for these training clusters. So we’re doing that first and foremost. So that says we’re on the front end of this whole trend.
The second thing is infrastructure in the enterprise. We announced HyperFabric a few months back and it’s going to be available the first of year. We’re actually working with Nvidia on some features that they’re still working on for us to get that delivered. That’s going to be Cisco networking, Vast storage, Nvidia GPUs, Cisco CPUs, with a cloud-based orchestration and lifecycle management capabilities with security integrated as well. So that’s happening in the enterprise.
We want to really help our customers more easily deploy these AI applications as the use cases become more apparent. We’re focused on security. We’ve launched Hypershield. We’re working on some other technology that will actually provide a layer of security in front of these custom models that our enterprise customers may run. So there’s a whole security aspect that’s going on.
We need security for AI and AI for security, and we’re working on both of those.
We’re going to have a whole services set of capabilities to help our customers think through use cases with our partners, in conjunction with our partners as we go forward.
We understand our role in the web scale space. We understand our role in the enterprise. We understand our role in the security side of AI. And we understand our role in helping our enterprise customers understand how to deploy AI.
A great unknown for what the economy is going to look like in 2025? With this election coming up, we are going to have a new president in January, one way or the other. What are your thoughts on what the impact is going to be on the economy based on whoever gets elected?
Look, we’ve had both parties in office over the last eight years and the economy has been incredibly resilient. So I think our system is built in a way that restricts radical policy shifts.
I think that there’s so much happening right now that’s positive in the U.S. that the policies and the approach will be different depending on which administration’s in office. But the last eight years has proven that we have a veryâ especially in light of the inflation that we dealt with, the supply chain shocks that we dealt with, the interest rate increases, the subsequent beginning of the easingâI think we’ve just proven that we have a very resilient economy.
So I think this is going to continue to chug along. We’ll just have to deal with different issues, depending on who’s in office relative to different policy issues and how we respond to them.