New Cloudflare One Partner Program Focuses on Zero Trust Security

With the Area 1 acquisition integrated, Cloudflare is rolling out a new initiative: the Cloudflare One Partner Program.

The new launch comes about six months after Cloudflare, one of the biggest networks on the internet, updated the Channel and Alliances Partner Program to support secure access service edge and zero-trust managed services. Cloudflare One now takes all existing products and partners to the next level, with a particular emphasis on zero trust.

“We’re pulling together the different parts of our bundle to make sure we have the right pricing and incentive structure,” Matt Harrell, global head of channels and alliances at Cloudflare, told Channel Futures.

That bundle comprises zero trust, network as a service and cloud email security, all delivered via software as a service.

“We’re making a big investment in zero trust,” Harrell said.

Matthew Prince, co-founder and CEO of Cloudflare, agreed.

Cloudflare’s Matthew Prince

“[O]rganizations need a unified solution to secure their distributed workforces and, at the same time, accelerate employee systems,” Prince said. “But another key piece is broad adoption, and that’s why we’ve been working to seamlessly layer this into organizations without interruptions. Critical architectures like zero trust shouldn’t be complex, yet we hear every day from businesses that don’t know where to start. That’s why we have modernized how partners can fully implement and deliver what organizations of all sizes need most today.”

The Cloudflare One Setup

With that in mind, Cloudflare is putting a lot into partners – managed service providers, resellers, technology solutions brokerages, system integrators – via Cloudflare One. Here’s how it’s set up: Partners choose whether to join the Essentials, Advanced or Premier tier. Each is delivered on a per-user basis, with pricing determined per user.

Yet the higher a partner goes, the more access to capabilities, and the greater the possibility for return on investment. Premier, of course, represents the top level and comes with all Cloudflare solutions and features. Furthermore, the Premier tier offers the most compensation potential — up to 45% total margin, after including base discounts, deal registration, bundled sales and the partner’s own professional services.

To that last point, Cloudflare is really pushing its partners to act as the service delivery component for its platforms.

“We’re not competing with our channel on the services side,” Harrell said. “We don’t want to offers services. We have basic-level, quick-start packages, but they’re designed to be advisory. … We’re not in the game of wanting to build out a professional services organization or do massive migrations.”

TD Synnex is the Only Place to Find Cloudflare One (for Now)

Notably, Cloudflare One will only be available through TD Synnex for a while. That’s Cloudflare’s preferred distribution partner, at least until the third quarter of this year.

“We understand that some partners are going to want to engage directly and purchase directly through Cloudflare, and we will enable that,” Harrel said. However, he added, “initial deployment will be through TD Synnex. They’re very good at bundling and pricing, making it easier for partners to consume.”

That further means TD Synnex will provide support to partners selling Cloudflare solutions. Even so, Cloudflare One will guide partners in three main areas. The first is …

… zero-trust architecture assessments. These consist of questionnaires and other content that help partners know how to deliver risk mitigation plans and live workshops. The second is zero-trust implementation services. That means migrating customers onto Cloudflare platforms. The third is enabling partners to handle Tier 1 inquiries. Cloudflare is unveiling no-cost accreditation that will help partners on each front.

Importantly, too, Cloudflare One at first will only roll out to distribution partners in the United States and Canada. Cloudflare expects to add EMEA, APAC and Latin America next quarter.

Existing Cloudflare and Area 1 partners will be automatically enrolled in Cloudflare One. Yet, be aware, Cloudflare is vetting new partners who want to join Cloudflare One.

“We’re looking for high-potential partners who have that zero-trust mindset … and want to be engaged in selling those types of products,” Harrell said.

Channel Partner Reactions to Cloudflare One Launch

A number of prominent channel firms are hailing the introduction of Cloudflare One.

Avant’s Shane McNamara

“As a member of Avant’s Security Council, Cloudflare has been a close innovation partner of Avant’s as we enable our network of trusted advisers to help their customers adopt the very latest in cloud technologies,” said Shane McNamara, executive vice president of engineering and operations at Avant Communications. “With this new Cloudflare One Partner Program for zero trust, Cloudflare has launched a first-of-kind set of integrated product suites and partner services packages that will give our trusted advisers a compelling set of solutions to take to market.”

Deborah Jones, senior product marketing manager for alliances at IBM Security Services, made a similar comment.

“[W]e look forward to further expanding our go-to-market with Cloudflare and helping customers smoothly and quickly transform their network security by adopting a zero-trust strategy for protecting their infrastructure, teams and applications,” Jones said.

Over at Opticca Security, delivering Cloudflare’s platforms through Opptica professional services offers significant opportunity.

“We have seen how comprehensive Cloudflare’s zero-trust solutions are amongst the industry, and coupled with Opticca Security providing design and implementation services, this is key to us fully supporting customers,” said Joey Campione, managing director at Opticca Security.

Rackspace Technology, too, intends to support Cloudflare adoption by providing its engineering and professional services. The same goes for MSP Wipro.

“We’re already seeing significant market use cases from our partnership, with Wipro cybersecurists providing application security, implementation services and ongoing managed services,” said Tony Buffomante, senior vice president, global CRS leader at Wipro.

Cloudflare says its capabilities protest users from phishing attacks and secure every connection without slowing traffic.