Solera Networks Debuts Partner Program

By Gina Roos

As Solera Networks transitioned into the enterprise space over the past few years, it realized the need to create a partner channel to sell its advanced security analytics solution.

The new global partner program enables channel partners of all sizes to offer high-margin services and solutions based on the company’s DeepSee platform, which provides big data security intelligence and analytics for advanced threat protection.

“We were doing a lot of our business initially with the federal government,” said Alex Seton, vice president of worldwide channels and strategic alliances at Solera Networks. “Over the past two years, [our business] has moved into the enterprise because the threat factor has moved from not only targeting government agencies, but also any commercial enterprise that has intellectual property or any asset of value.”

The company had “opportunistic contracts with certain partners that would fulfill customer requests, but we never had a proactive effort to embrace the partners and help them grow their business,” he added.

Targeting network security solution providers, the Solera Networks 20:20 Partner Program offers two levels of partnerships: Premier Partner and Authorized Reseller. Under the program, partners have access to training, inside sales support, deal registration, lead referrals, marketing support, and real-time customer evaluations and services.

The Premier level targets partners that can commit resources to the technology and grow the business. Requirements include an annual sales commitment of approximately $500,000, dedicated tech and sales people trained on Solera’s products, and not-for-resale (NFR) DeepSee units in their labs for demonstrations. No revenue commitment is required for Authorized Reseller partners, but they don’t receive the same benefits as Premier partners.

The Solera DeepSee platform includes big data security analytics, threat intelligence and full security visibility to detect advanced malware, unknown threats and zero-day attacks. The platform captures all network traffic (Layer 2 through 7) that is married to external threat intelligence in order to alert and report to security analysts on anomalous activity that potentially could be malicious.

The platform includes software, turnkey hardware and virtual-appliance form factors. It works with leading security information and event management (SIEM), intrusion detection system/intrusion prevention system (IDS/IPS), next-generation firewalls and malware protection solutions, including HP ArcSight, LogRhythm, McAfee, Palo Alto Networks, Q1 Labs, Splunk, Dell SonicWALL, Arbor Networks and Sourcefire.

Because Solera Networks has very tight integration relationships to other security tools, including firewalls and SIEM products, the company is focused on partnering with resellers that are already selling many of these products because Solera’s solution is a “natural add-on sale,” according to Seton.

“Both our solution and program are designed to create new revenue and growth opportunities for partners,” he said. “Delivering big data security analytics and advanced threat protection into end-user networks augments many other solutions and services that these partners are already providing.”

Gina Roos, a contributing writer for Channel Insider, covers technology and the channel.