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GuardiCore, the cloud and data-center security provider, has refocused its partner program to align to the service-focused shift in the channel, the growth and sophistication of attacks, mounting consequences of breaches, increasing integration of business processes and security, the professional skills shortage and the ongoing transition to the cloud.

The program is designed to drive partner success by aligning GuardiCore Centra Security Platform capabilities to partner business models, helping to establish go-to-market services and drive new revenue streams, the company said. It includes “generous” margins, flexible partner licensing models, deal registration with protection and greater margins, and customized sales support and other enablement programs.

GuardiCore’s Todd Bice

Todd Bice, GuardiCore’s senior director of channels, tells Channel Partners his company’s objective was to implement a channel-first program with a focus on partner success through go-to-market alignment, strong enablement and competitive differentiation.

“Some of our high-level objectives with this new channel program include the implementation of a set of tools and resources to enable our channel partners and to provide the means to scale globally, diversification of our go-to-market channel ecosystem (expand beyond VARs to include MSP/MSSPs, cloud transformation providers, and global systems integrators), and gain stronger strategic alignment to our partners through the licensing models so that our partners can leverage our innovative technology to enhance existing services, create new services offerings, and enable new revenue streams,” he said.

Bice said while defining strategy and key components of the program, “we had many conversations with existing and prospective partners ​to validate our approach — including discount structure, deal registration, services alignment, partner licensing, tools, resources and other insights.”

Development of MSSP partners is a key focus for GuardiCore’s channel team in 2018, Bice said.

“GuardiCore’s (platform) provides unique capabilities that can be leveraged to deliver new and highly differentiated managed security services, including managed detection and response (MDR), critical application protection with microsegmentation as a service, managed cloud workload protection, and deep, comprehensive visibility to client environments that enables ancillary services such as incident response, threat hunting, application dependency mapping and more,” he said.

A major change in the program is a new partner licensing model that allows MSPs to adopt and deploy licensing in a pay-as-you-grow model that aligns to the partners’ customer billing cycles and ensures immediate profit, Bice said. Another key change is the creation of a floating licensing model that provides partners with access to tooling for technical pre-sales and short professional services engagements to enhance their ability to set themselves apart from their competition and drive more revenue, Bice said.

“GuardiCore enabled us to bring a unique and high-value managed security service to market,” said Andy Hicks, senior director at Blue Bastion. “The GuardiCore Centra Security Platform is the centerpiece of the technology stack we leverage in delivering our (MDR) service. It allows us to deliver unparalleled visibility, unauthorized lateral movement detection, dynamic and static deception, and microsegmentation services on an integrated platform. The value it delivers is remarkable.”