Palo Alto Networks Unleashes Expanded NextWave Partner Program
Palo Alto Networks' Cortex MSSP ecosystem has grown 146% year over year.
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Palo Alto Networks‘ Karl Soderlund said the digital age is accelerating cyber incidences, making it challenging for organizations to managed rapidly changing threats.
“And when we look at our own internal team, our IR team, Unit 42, they recently put out a report that 44% of the cyberattack cases that they’re inspecting don’t have any level of XDR. So there is a huge demand for IR services out there. Companies can do it themselves and provide those services themselves, or they can look at how they can work with the expanded partner community or ecosystem community to provide those services. So we looked at the marketplace, and said we want to leverage our partners and continue to leverage them at the point of attack to help provide and solve these customer problems.”
The updated NextWave program is aimed at MSSPs and other partner types, Soderlund said.
“MSSP was the driver behind it, because a lot of our customers are turning to MSSPs for help and they want to improve their security posture,” he said. “They want to strengthen their outcomes, and having an MSSP be able to provide incident response services, it kind of fits hand in glove. So we really want to make sure we brought it for our MSSP partners. But the ability and access to this technology is open for our entire partner community.”
Before developing the updated program, Palo Alto Networks went on a listening tour and talked to partners about what they would look for and what they would need to be successful, Soderlund said.
“They gave us feedback on the tools, on the training and on the resources that they need to address this customer demand,” he said. “And we took that into consideration. I always like to say that the output of what we deliver is really from the feedback of our partners, because if we bring something, if we work on something and bring something to market without getting consistent feedback, we may dramatically miss the mark. But if we go and understand the needs from the partners directly, then we can really build something that is in a way customizable for what they need.”
Through NextWave, partners will have more to offer their customers, Soderlund said.
“By leveraging this IR and XDR technology, it’s going to expand their opportunity based on what they can provide to the customers, and within the customers that they have today and net-new customers,” he said. “They’ll be able to be proactive with services that they can deliver. They can be proactive with assessments. They can offer advanced threat analytics. They can talk about attack surface management. So they’re solving what is a tremendous customer pain point now by providing these services. So it’s a win for the customer because they know they’re going to improve their security posture. And it’s a win for the partner because they can go to their account base, and actually position and sell more services to really help them out. So it’s great for everyone involved.”
The volume and complexity of attacks is constantly changing, Soderlund said.
“So we always need to stay one step ahead of the bad guys and we need to help our customers stay one step ahead,” he said. “And the best way to do that is to go through a broad partner community of over 10,000 partners globally to bring that message to them of what’s available for them. Sometimes I feel like our biggest competitor is awareness. Customers aren’t aware of what we can offer and we can really make sure that we turn up the energy level and the volume, and reach a really broad scope of customers by bringing this to our partner ecosystem.”
Three things are driving rapid growth of Palo Alto Networks’ Cortex MSSP ecosystem, Soderlund said.
“One, it’s a concerted effort by our teams to provide the services and the technology that MSSPs want to leverage,” he said. “I think the second is the focus and resources that Palo Alto Networks has invested in the MSSP program. And then three is just the sheer demand in the marketplace for the services that they’re providing today.”
The updated NextWave offers a “tremendous” competitive advantage for partners, Soderlund said.
“First off, I look at the technology,” he said. “This is designed for true IR in addition to endpoint detection and response (EDR). And we’re the only ones who really provide this level of capabilities in the marketplace out there. And then to support our partners, we have expert technology and deployment support on a 24/7 basis. So we’ve got great technology, we’ve got the support team around it to support it. And then again, I talk about those increased services opportunities that they have that they will be able to brand and bring to market. So I think there’s greater opportunity creation. When we looked at the marketplace at who else has something similar, we really think we leapfrog that of our competition with what we’re bringing to market today.”
The updated NextWave offers a “tremendous” competitive advantage for partners, Soderlund said.
“First off, I look at the technology,” he said. “This is designed for true IR in addition to endpoint detection and response (EDR). And we’re the only ones who really provide this level of capabilities in the marketplace out there. And then to support our partners, we have expert technology and deployment support on a 24/7 basis. So we’ve got great technology, we’ve got the support team around it to support it. And then again, I talk about those increased services opportunities that they have that they will be able to brand and bring to market. So I think there’s greater opportunity creation. When we looked at the marketplace at who else has something similar, we really think we leapfrog that of our competition with what we’re bringing to market today.”
Palo Alto Networks has expanded its NextWave program for partners to better address customer demand for incident response (IR) services.
The NextWave program aligns with the expansion of the Palo Alto Networks Cortex MSSP ecosystem. It grew 146% year over year.
Partners can deliver IR services powered by Palo Alto Networks’ Cortex Extended Detection and Response (XDR). Leveraging a partner specializing in IR services can accelerate response and remediation across the incident lifecycle for holistic response to an incident.
The Palo Alto Networks NextWave program offers:
IR XDR technology built utilizing use cases to reduce time and resources spent on delivering services.
Expert technical and deployment support 24/7 for online access to XDR tenants within minutes and around-the-clock technical support.
Expanded routes to market with more ways to offer proactive services to clients pre-or post-IR engagement. That includes advanced threat analytics, proactive assessments and attack surface management.
Constant Drumbeat to Market
Karl Soderlund is Palo Alto Networks’ senior vice president of worldwide channel sales.
Palo Alto Networks’ Karl Soderlund
“We always put pressure on ourselves and stress in the system to make sure that we are bringing the best solutions and opportunities for our partners,” he said. “And the NextWave program for threat response is one of those. So it’s the constant drumbeat that we bring to market.”
Navigating rapidly evolving risks can pose a challenge for organizations, according to Palo Alto Networks. To solve this challenge, many turn to MSSPs for help strengthening their security outcomes.
Kevin Kilgo is vice president of managed services at Fulcrum Technology Solutions.
“Earning the Palo Alto Networks NextWave designation for threat response helps further our security team’s expertise in delivering a holistic security operations platform to our customers,” he said. “Combining Fulcrum’s managed security services, our 24x7x365 security operations center (SOC), security information and event management (SIEM)-as-a-service, and security orchestration, automation and response (SOAR) capabilities with the best-in-class power of Cortex XDR has helped our SOC team significantly in addressing the ever-growing burden of our customer’s detection and response operations.”
See our slideshow above for more about the expanded Palo Alto Networks NextWave program.
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