Less than a month after naming a new CEO, next-gen firewall
developer Palo Alto Networks is reconfirming its commitment to channel growth
with an announcement this week of partnerships with some of the biggest managed
service providers in the security market. The heavy-hitters on the Palo Alto
Networks roster now include BT Global Services, Dell SecureWorks, Solutionary,
Symantec and Verizon.
The company believes that the relationships will greatly
expand the footprint of its technology, which currently runs at more than 4,500
enterprises around the world. Unlike
traditional firewalls, Palo Alto Networks' solution gives administrators the
power to deploy comprehensive
application usage control policies for inbound and outbound traffic, while
linking network activity to users and groups—not just IP addresses—for
application visibility, policy creation, logging and reporting. Those
capabilities are combined with a real-time threat prevention engine with a
comprehensive URL database to block external threats, unauthorized information
transfer and to put the kibosh on non-work-related surfing.
That's what drew security service provider Solutionary to
the vendor.
"Palo Alto Networks has reinvented the firewall, making
organizations more secure while allowing them to decrease the number of
disparate solutions they are supporting in their infrastructure," said
Jarrett Miller, vice president of channel sales for Solutionary, who says his
company is helping its customers cut the cost of managing next-gen firewalls
through its services. "Since Solutionary and Palo Alto Networks share an
extensive reseller channel, customers will be able to more easily package
products and services together for a complete solution."
Palo Alto has been on the hunt for strategic managed services
partners of late and plans to continue its expansion within the managed
security services provider (MSSP) market through its two-tier MSSP program.
Both levels offer a full spectrum of sales and marketing support as well as
in-depth technical training and accreditation for managing its firewall
systems.
The unveiling of its newest MSSP partners follows closely on
the heels of the introduction of Palo Alto's new CEO, Mark McLaughlin, who came
from a post as CEO of VeriSign to lead
his new company. Over the past year the upstart vendor has doubled its
headcount and made $200 million in bookings while achieving positive cash flow over five consecutive financial
quarters.
Managed Services 
