Masergy is encouraging partners to target SD-WAN sales through its new channel program.

The software-defined networking company on Tuesday unveiled the Zenith Partner Program, which supports master agents, agents and technology partners. In addition, Masergy introduced a revamped SD-WAN portfolio and several related service level agreements (SLAs).

Masergy’s Chris MacFarland

“Masergy has been and will always be a partner-first company,” Masergy chairman and CEO Chris MacFarland said. “Our partner community is the lifeblood of our company. We appreciate the collaboration in helping businesses of all sizes have agile, secure access to cloud applications.”

The program features additional training and marketing resources, as well as market development funds for apex partners. But most notable are the incentives Masergy will give partners for qualified SD-WAN and UCaaS sales. The incentives will offer partners the opportunity to earn up to a 3x bonus on all qualified deals through the end of the year.

Masergy’s Jim Glackin

“The opportunity to help companies transform and grow through innovative solutions like SD-WAN is ideal for today’s markets. The new Masergy Zenith program is the catalyst to ignite our mutual growth with partners and I’m honored to lead the charge,” said Jim Glackin, Masergy’s senior vice president of global channels.

Major SD-WAN Updates

Meantime, Masergy announced the next generation of its SD-WAN portfolio, which meets Gartner’s Secure Access Service Edge (SASE) tenets, the vendor said. The updates include more options for hybrid networking and cloud on-ramps.

Masergy also rolled out several new service-level agreements (SLAs), including less than 1 millisecond of jitter and 100% in-sequence packet delivery. You can read about all the SLAs in Masergy’s announcement. Light Reading’s Kelsy Kusterer Ziser analyzed them in an article.

ZK Research principal analyst Zeus Kerravala called the SLAs “among the most competitive in the industry.”

“Plus, they are the only provider offering proactive credits on availability, which builds client trust by centering the service around accountability and transparency,” Kerravala said.

Masergy executives said the updates allow business customers and their channel partners to “adopt SD-WAN on their terms.”

“Offering greater flexibility and more choice, our new SD-WAN portfolio enables clients to achieve optimal performance and security across hybrid, multicloud environments with an approach to management that fits their specific needs — all on a regional and global scale,” MacFarland said.

The portfolio comes with co-managed and fully managed options.

New Channel Investment

When Jim Glackin joined Masergy earlier this summer, he said the company would give channel partners more training and branding resources.

“As a channel program, my team and I need to add value,” Glackin said. “I see most channel programs as reactive, ready and willing to jump in on opportunities, but not actively working to help partners generate new opportunities.”

Master agents are lending their support to Masergy and its new program.

“Masergy has been a strategic partner of ours for years and one who we can trust to deliver a superior solution and experience to our clients,” Avant Communications CEO Ian Kieninger said.

Avant recently honored Masergy for “top vendor engagement” with its European partners.

PlanetOne Communications CEO Ted Schuman praised Masergy for supported MSPs and agents.

“Congrats to Jim Glackin, and cheers to the Masergy team for prioritizing our partners and bringing to market innovative solutions that solve for the needs of today’s distributed enterprise,” Schuman said.

Paul Constantine, Intelisys‘ executive vice president of supplier services, thanked Masergy for its “expanded investment” in partners. Intelisys won three Masergy partner awards last year, including top SD-WAN partner.

“We look forward to accelerating our growth with the new Masergy Zenith program,” Constantine said.