Channel Insider content and product recommendations are
editorially independent. We may make money when you click on links
to our partners.
Learn More
The shifting AI landscape plays a big role in how partners advise customers on AI adoption and security, and opens the door for new opportunities for partners to create integrations and differentiate their offerings.
Partner-focused discussions at Proofpoint Protect highlight growth in ecosystem
Speaking at Proofpoint Protect 2025, Chari Rhoades, VP of Channel, Americas, Proofpoint; Stan de Boisset, SVP of Global Channels, Proofpoint; and Scott Goree, SVP, Partners. Alliances & Ecosystems, Optiv spoke about the role of channel partners, as well as Proofpoint’s channel strategy.
“Partners have been playing a really big role in the customer landscape, from providing technologies and sourcing products in the past to being real advisors to customers about what’s happening in the AI world,” said de Boisset. “If you think about the history of Proofpoint and partners, we really evolved from being around 40 percent partner-centric a decade ago to being 80 percent with partners right now. As we grow at the company, we want to invest even more.”
It’s not just limited to AI, either; de Boisset said that Proofpoint’s investments will be significant in both AI and overall data security.
Rhoades notes that Proofpoint offers partners and customers a comprehensive platform solution.
“For partners to look at how they can create integrations into the ecosystem, when you look at our alignment with companies like CrowdStrike– that’s a tremendous opportunity for partners to increase the value and differentiate how they’re going to market,” said Rhoades.
Guidance and differentiation top partner and customer needs
Goree adds that, from Optiv’s perspective, their customers are all asking for help and guidance in the AI space. This opens up new market opportunities for the cybersecurity company.
For Proofpoint, helping partners means helping them to differentiate themselves and opening up new opportunities for partners with their approach to collaboration, security, and data security. Rhoades mentions that many customers experience tool fatigue and are looking for a platform for this reason, as well as because platforms can drive value.
“Partners are looking for a platform because they can drive value, and the way that we’re delivering both collaboration protection and data protection and addressing these agentic workforces really brings it all together,” said Rhoades. “And then you layer in the extended ecosystem, I think those will continue to be great opportunities for our partners.”
Proofpoint and Optiv’s partnership in the new landscape
In Q3 of 2025, Proofpoint announced that Optiv had surpassed $1 billion in cumulative sales of Proofpoint’s cybersecurity platform.
The two have partnered for over a decade to deliver solutions to help protect organizations’ data.
So, how will Proofpoint and Optiv make a real impact for customers as their partnership deepens?
Goree says that it starts with services and advisory on what they can do for tech rationalization in streamlining the portfolio of a given customer down to tools that are now manageable. The second part, he says, is looking at how Optiv helps Proofpoint.
“We look at our propensity to buy data. We have our Optiv Market System– patent pending– that we look at our information and say, ‘Hey, here are customers where we believe we can introduce Proofpoint to and expand the Proofpoint story into new customers,’” said Goree. “Getting more customers affiliated with Proofpoint, that’s our goal.”
Rhoades adds that Proofpoint and Optiv excel at coming together as a complete team for the customer.
“We’ve got a great history working with Optiv as a partner, and that translates into how the customer interacts when Proofpoint and Optiv are together,” Rhoades says. “It’s a great collaboration addressing, from Optiv’s point of view, the rationalization, but then also from our side of things, how we’re uniquely designed with our solutions to solve some of these very complex problems customers face around protecting their data and their people.”
Partners want to invest with Proofpoint, de Boisset says, adding they “saw a lot of energy” from the recent Proofpoint announcements.
“We can capture these opportunities together, help our customers together,” said de Boisset. “So, I’m very excited to really unlock this market with [Optiv] and all the partners.”
AI use by Proofpoint partners
According to the panel of experts, there are many similarities between small- and medium-sized MSP customers and large enterprises that utilize agentic AI.
“An MSP is trying to solve for the operational challenges of a customer environment, and so their ability to leverage agentic agents that are taking tasks and reducing the time associated with doing those things are going to help MSPs to serve even more customers when you’re leveraging that kind of opportunity,” said Rhoades.
They also agreed that AI will play a massive role in threat management and the ability to respond to threats.
“I think the solution we have, and whatever we can come up with for the MSPs in the future, would be a huge differentiator for them,” said de Boisset.
Proofpoint recently announced the release of four new innovations to secure AI-enabled workspaces. Read more about the innovations and discover more about the happenings at Proofpoint Protect 2025.