Palo Alto Networks Offers Rebates, Other Enhancements to NextWave Program

More money. Better training. Simplified engagement.

These are a few of the things Palo Alto Networks (PANW) promises with a raft of new partner program enhancements, unveiled this week.

First some backdrop. If you haven’t been following the company, which develops advanced security solutions, it’s been on a roll of late. In late February, for example, the company released 2016 second results. Sales for the period ended January 31, 2016 rose 54 percent year-over-year to a record $334.7 million. Afterwards, Goldman Sachs and Bernstein had nice things to say about the company’s prospects.

This week, Palo Alto Networks is hosting its annual “Ignite” customer conference in Las Vegas. After two days, it has unveiled its 2016 Cybersecurity Canon awards, which recognize “authors and works of literature that accurately depict the history, milestones and culture of the modern cybersecurity industry,” and announced a partnership with PwC's Cybersecurity and Privacy practice to “design a next-generation security framework to serve as a guide for customer organizations to establish a breach prevention-oriented security architecture.”

Not wanting to leave partners out, the company announced its latest enhancements to its NextWave Partner Program in a blog published Monday, April 4.

The big news is rebates will now be given to top performing Diamond and Platinum partners that exceed quarterly growth targets. Palo Alto Networks is also promising more predictable not-for-resale (NFR) discounts and real-time reporting on the utilization of NFR equipment, NFR return-on-investment and proof-of-concept activities, according to the company.

In addition, Palo Alto Networks has borrowed a page from Microsoft, IBM and others and unveiled new specializations to help partners differentiate their businesses from one another.

To help partners in this realm, the company is offering the following:

Also, the company unveiled an improved deal registration system and an updated Partner Learning Center.

Ron Myers, senior vice president of channel global channels at the company, said the channel has helped the company grow its customer based to more than 30,000 accounts worldwide in recent months. Furthermore, he said in a video that nearly 300 Palo Alto Networks partners grew their business more than 100 percent quarter-over-quarter in Q2.