The Gately Report: Special Palo Alto Networks Ignite 2022 Edition with Karl Soderlund

PALO ALTO NETWORKS IGNITE — Palo Alto Networks‘ Karl Soderlund has three top priorities in his new role as senior vice president of North America ecosystems. He announced his new position during this week’s Ignite 2022.

We featured Soderlund in our inaugural Gately Report last January. So it’s only fitting to close out the year with him on his new job. He addressed his new role and new NextWave partner program enhancements during this week’s Palo Alto Networks Ignite 2022 conference.

Close to 60% of Palo Alto Networks’ business is generated in North America, Soderlund said.

Total Addressable Market Growing at Rapid Rate

“Right now, if we look at our joint customer base that we sell to with our partners and the total addressable market, it’s growing at a rapid rate,” Soderlund said. “And customers today need help. And what I mean by that is there is an IT shortage for headcount. There are a lot of disparate security solutions that are embedded in their environments, which leads to complexity. And they need proven experts to come in and help them solve their problems and ensure their security posture is strong and they’re protected. Why I’m saying that is we believe that our partner community delivers that expertise. So what we do as the manufacturer is ensure they are enabled and trained, and have the skill set to understand our joint customers’ environments and how to best secure them. So that’s the opportunity.”

In the past, a partner community may have been more transactional, Soderlund said.

“Today they are a valued consultant in everything from pre-sales design of what the environment should look like through implementation, through full-blown managed services,” he said. “So it’s really life cycle management. And customers are desperate for the help today, and that’s not more or less of a North American statement. That’s more of a global statement right now that we’re seeing in our environment and our industry.”

See our slideshow above for more from Soderlund and more from Ignite 2022.