Palo Alto Networks unveils NextWave 3.0 to help partners build new security expertise

Palo Alto Networks today unveiled NextWave 3.0, a significant set of enhancements, incentives and training to its award-winning NextWave Partner Program. Designed to help partners leverage all of Palo Alto Networks technologies, NextWave 3.0 will help partners differentiate their services, build new security expertise and grow profitable businesses as they meet customers’ needs in a dynamic security market.

Enterprises everywhere are expanding connectivity, growing their cloud capabilities and turning to automated solutions to protect themselves against sophisticated cyberattacks. Palo Alto Networks continues to expand its integrated platform of cloud, network and AI-driven threat protection capabilities to meet these market and customer dynamics. Its partner ecosystem has been instrumental in providing complementary solutions to help customers implement the best security architectures.

As digital transformation fuels the demand for specialized security expertise and creates a new economy of services, Palo Alto Networks is committed to delivering the products, programs and resources to enable its NextWave partners. Developed in consultation with the company’s partners, NextWave 3.0 will:

• Enable differentiation with new specializations. Partners can build their security expertise through three new Prisma SASE (Prisma Access and Prisma SD-WAN, formerly CloudGenix), Prisma Cloud and Cortex XDR/XSOAR specializations. These new specializations include corresponding partner training and certifications.
• Enhance partner profitability with three new specialization incentives for Prisma SASE, Prisma Cloud and Cortex XDR/XSOAR deals, along with other new incentives, deal boost and new rebates for its NextWave Diamond Innovator partners.
• Expand partner opportunities by boosting existing deal referral incentives on all Palo Alto Networks products, extending partner-delivered support across more of Palo Alto Networks’ technologies and offering new education credits. Further, NextWave partners can now resell Prisma Cloud via a two-tier go-to-market strategy.
• Empower partner success. NextWave 3.0 includes a host of new enablement resources and ways for partners to earn or maintain NextWave status, expanding Certified Professional Services certification to include the new specializations, Technology Education credits and technology adoption discounts.

“The future of our business and that of our partners are fundamentally linked,” said Karl Soderlund, senior vice president of Worldwide Channels. “The NextWave partner of tomorrow will enable digital transformation for our customers by embracing new technology, offering product-specific expertise, and leading with services. NextWave 3.0 helps our partners do just that. It is the most sweeping set of enhancements we have done to help our partners become security experts across our entire technology portfolio.”

Samer El Kodsi, Channel Sales Director, Emerging Markets, EMEA at Palo Alto Networks, said, “As businesses continue their digital transformation, whether they’re migrating more processes to the cloud, seeing a proliferation of IoT devices, or entering new markets, there is far more to secure. Organisations are looking for partners to help them navigate this complexity and the channel has a key role to play here.”

“The significant enhancements and investment in our NextWave partner programme are designed to help our partners differentiate and expand their opportunities in the market. Encouraging them to specialise in particular areas of cybersecurity will not only help to ensure partners have the best capabilities to design and deploy the right solutions in their chosen fields, but also gives customers increased confidence in their security approach,” he added.

Palo Alto Networks NextWave partner program includes approximately 6,500 partners who help 80,000 customers around the world succeed with the company’s technologies. In FY’20, 900 NextWave partners doubled their business through Palo Alto Networks. In the company’s most recent Partner Satisfaction survey, more than 3,300 NextWave partners ranked Palo Alto Networks No. 1 in Partnership, Growth, Enablement and Profitability, when measured against top competitors. Today, more than 18,000 partner engineers hold over 40,000 Palo Alto Networks technical certifications.

Mentioning the new program’s launch was happening at a suitable point in time, Samer added, “In the Middle East, the new program launch comes at an important time for the region. The global pandemic has meant customers have needed to move to the cloud and enable connectivity from anywhere faster than we have ever seen before. All these customers are looking for the best partners to help them secure this digital transformation with the right cybersecurity solutions. The new program, introducing the multiple specialisations, will help the channel in the region demonstrate to those customers that they have the right skill set with Palo Alto Networks’ market-leading solutions to address their growing and immediate requirements, while at the same time also being more rewarding for the partners who adopt it.”