.Conf22: Splunk Partner Says Partnerverse Focused on 'Things That Matter'

On Day 2 of .Conf22, two Splunk partners gave the thumbs-up to the company’s new Partnerverse program that launched in March.

During .Conf22, Splunk unveiled enhancements to Partnerverse. Enhancements include:

TekStream Solutions’ Matthew Clemmons

Matthew Clemmons is managing director of TekStream Solutions. It provides software, services, support and sourcing for a variety of digital transformation partners. Splunk is the the largest part of its portfolio.

Clemmons said the Partnerverse program is elevating partners that have invested in the company and is focused on the fundamental things that create successful partners.

Adding Transparency

With Partnerverse, Splunk is adding more transparency in terms of what it’s looking for in a model partner, Clemmons said.

“With Partnerverse, Spunk has found the things that matter,” he said. “So partners like us who have invested heavily in Splunk and the people, and not just looking at the global size (partners) that have huge names, looking at the fundamental things that create not just successful partners, but partners that can make their customers successful. So they’ve elevated that and are going to provide visibility for their customers to the partners that can help them be more successful. So partners like us who are full stack Splunk, observability and security, and have deep, deep knowledge, the Partnerverse program is doing a great job of identifying and elevating those partners.”

TekStream isn’t a large or small company, he said. But outside the walls of Splunk, it’s not an everyday household name.

“So what Partnerverse is going to do is allow us to have exposure in the right ways to customers that need the relationships … so that they’re successful,” Clemmons said.

During .Conf22, Splunk emphasized its focus on observability and security.

“So data is security data,” Clemmons said. “And we need to have clear fidelity and visibility into that data. So observability and security is the way we look at things.”

Partnerverse Emphasizes Education

Consist Software Solutions’ Thomas Miller-Lupp

Thomas Muller-Lupp is portfolio manager, digital transformation with Consist Software Solutions in Germany. It’s also a Parterverse member.

He said Partnerverse is more focused on education, which is “very good for us because we have a high skill level in Splunk.”

“There is this new locator where we can put what is our business, what we want to do and want to show Splunk, what is our capabilities, what we can do as a partner,” Muller-Lupp said. “We can focus on our services and doing it together.”

During Tuesday’s Global Partner Summit, Splunk’s president and CEO Gary Steele said one of the most interesting opportunities for partners is to help on-premises customers move to cloud. Muller-Lupp said there’s an even bigger opportunity to help companies in Germany with cloud migration.

“Germans are not so cloud minded,” he said. “It takes some time that German companies are on their way to the cloud. If the American companies are here, German companies are maybe just starting the move to the cloud. But I think this will come up in one or two years.”

In addition, demand for cybersecurity in Germany is “huge at the moment,” Muller-Lupp said.

“We have a lot of projects in the pipe, but the resources are missing,” he said. “So it’s great that Splunk is focusing on security.”

Observability and Security

Also during .Conf22, two Splunk super sessions focused on observability and security.

Splunk’s Mala Pillutla

Mala Pillutla, Splunk’s group vice president of global observability market strategies, talked about why organizations should be focused on observability.

“The world is rapidly shifting to digital,” she said. “[During the pandemic], there was a 70% increase in internet use, a 76% increase in ecommerce, and 65% of all interactions are now digital. To meet these demands (organizations are) modernizing IT ops, migrating workload to cloud or modernizing applications.”

That means there’s more for…

…IT teams to monitor and react to, Pillutla said. Moreover, there’s more ways that software can break.

“Teams are expected to perform more changes … and at same time make sure they don’t disrupt customer experience,” she said. “So how do you introduce thousands of changes without breaking anything?”

A recent Splunk observability report showed a 90% reduction in downtime costs, 69% improved mean time to resolve and increased likelihood of detection with observability, Pillutla said.

During the security super session, Lana Knop, Splunk’s product strategy and ops leader, said Splunk’s platform innovation is supercharging the security operations center (SOC). Threat hunting, which Splunk provides, is one of the most critical functions of a SOC.

Splunk’s Lana Knop

In addition, Splunk’s risk-based alerts provides security analytics to stop SOC team members from being bombarded by alerts, Knop said. Splunk also provides automation to help lessen the impact of the ongoing cybersecurity talent shortage.

Global Partner Awards

Also at .Conf22, the 2022 Splunk Global Partner Awards highlighted partners for industry-leading business practices and dedication to constant collaboration. The partners are part of the Partnerverse program.

The global winners include:

North America winners include:

APAC, EMEA and Public Sector

APAC winners include:

EMEA winners include:

Public sector winners include: