CHANNEL PARTNERS CONFERENCE & EXPO — Channel firms helping customers with cloud solutions must know about the DNA of security – or, the vendors who specialize in security that’s applicable to the channel. And, that’s what attendees learned in Security Central, sponsored by Verizon, one of four Experience Areas found in the expo hall at the Channel Partners Conference & Expo in Las Vegas.

On the Jive Big stage, panel moderator Michael Goodenough, principal architect, North East with Omada Solutions, and executives from Masergy, DarkTrace, Panda Security and Verizon talked about the security offerings that their companies bring to the table to help partners build a security practice.

Goodenough kicked off the session talking about the major business initiatives around cloud.

“Out of the top 10 major initiatives of CTOs and CIOs, six are security-focused. Security is the number one factor for cloud implementation today,” he said.

That puts channel partners in a great position to help their customer concerns and solutions. Security solutions represented on the panel included: Omada, which focuses on identity and access management; Panda Security, which is fully in the cloud protecting against malicious code such as ransomware, cryptolocker, etc. and offers advanced cybersecurity for endpoint detection and response (EDR); Masergy, which runs security operations centers for security management and monitoring; DarkTrace, which has self-learning cybersecurity defense; and Verizon, which offers a suite of managed security services.

Panelists discussed the next step on the DNA strand that partners need to think about to either develop a security practice, enhance what they currently offer, or take a step forward with security.{ad}

Advice: Develop an area of expertise rather than go broad and be just “OK” in customer’s eyes.

“The quality and depth of your service, and the confidence a partner has to deliver is a real differentiator,” said David Grady, principal client partner in Verizon’s Business Networking and Security Solutions Group.

A few other pieces of advice: Offer customers a proof of value, and offer complementary security solutions to enhance what they may have today; also, think about offering …

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… managed security services and partnering with companies like Masergy who offer managing and monitoring services.

“Within the deals you’re doing today, there are absolutely line items that you’re missing around security that you can be making money on by with the right vendor partners – it’s as simple as that,” Goodenough told the audience.

In other words, there are multiple security components that can be bolted on to what partners offer customers today, without being disruptive.

If your partner business help customers with data center migration, cloud, or compliance, for example, and you’re not looking at security, you’re missing out on serious business opportunity.

Security Central, a collection of kiosks featuring security vendors, is making its Channel Partners Expo debut.