Infoblox Partner Summit: Expanded Go-to-Market Opportunities Await

(Pictured above: Infoblox’s Lori Cornmesser on stage at Infoblox Americas Partner Summit in Scottsdale, Arizona, Nov. 6.)

INFOBLOX AMERICAS PARTNER SUMMIT — Infoblox is focused on security, cloud and subscription-based offerings as part of its go to market with partners, and is starting to see that strategy pay off.

That’s according to Lori Cornmesser, the vendor’s vice president of worldwide partner alliances. During the first day of Infoblox’s Americas Partner Summit in Scottsdale, Arizona, she shared market opportunities and outlined her company’s partner strategy and what partners can expect in fiscal year 2019.

Infoblox’s Lori Cornmesser

The theme of the conference is “Next Level Partnering.” Last month, Infoblox rolled out its expanded global partner program, which rewards partners for their investment in accreditation competencies such as network, security and automation; and partners who invest in certifications and training receive increased benefits.

Infoblox has 1,100 partners transacting globally and year over year its channel has grown 12 percent, Cornmesser said.

“For the size and complexity of our company, that’s a good number,” she said. “We’re getting integrated into those solutions and growing together.”

The purpose and vision for the conference was to make sure partners know there’s an “expanded opportunity in the ways and solutions that partners go to market,” Cornmesser said.

“We’ve been the leader in DDI [which includes domain name system (DNS), dynamic host configuration protocol (DHCP) and IP address management] for a number of years, and partners know us in that space,” she said. “But now as they start to think about us in security, cloud and subscription, a lot of times that was the piece that was missing. It was, how do we actually fit into all of those go-to-market models?”

Infoblox wants to be the “vendor of choice,” and part of that means “we need partners to think about us in those solutions and where they compliment, but also lead with us,” Cornmesser said.

Customers are driving Infoblox’s growth in SaaS and subscription-based offerings, Cornmesser said.

“The customers are starting to make that pivot; they’re starting to see the economic value of that and so that’s why it’s important why we get ahead of that with our partners, specifically about what that’s going to mean in our business and how we do that together,” she said.

When it comes to security, Infoblox has a “really compelling message” about where it fits and how it differentiates, Cornmesser said. Some $20 million of the company’s business is in security based on deal registration, with the Americas driving about 60 percent of that.

“We’re telling a better story, a broader story and we’re telling it to the right customers, and the right buyers and the right engineers within that customer base,” she said. “We were so used to selling into a network engineer and we were telling the wrong stories to the wrong people. We were also telling the wrong stories to the wrong partners. So now we’ve aligned to tell the right story to the right customers, to our partners who are leading in security and driving that as part of their business. As a result, we’ve seen an increase in the overall security business.”

Among its goals for fiscal year 2019, Infoblox pinpoints 1,100 new partner pipeline opportunities per quarter, and 5,750 partner accreditations.

“We’ve laid a very good foundation; we’re seeing the market respond to the stories that we’re telling, and we’re seeing partners align in the right places and doing the right things,” Cornmesser said. “We’re building this investment with increased resources in channel and money to go spend, so it’s coming together. For me, fiscal 2019 is the advanced math equation. We’ve built the basics … and now it’s about …