As businesses continue to face challenges competing and keeping their solutions secure in global marketplaces, they demand more from their technology providers. For cybersecurity technology providers (like many others), partner ecosystems are increasingly crucial to grab customer attention, meet their greater demands, and differentiate from competitors.
This has been my focus since 2011, first from the services side at Wipro, and then the products side at CyberArk, Snyk, Illusive, and Corero Network Security, all in the cybersecurity industry. I've learned a lot about the kinds of partnerships that can drive a cybersecurity technology company's ("CyberTech's") go-to-market success, key elements to make a partnership successful, commercial models, and more. Below I've highlighted types of partnerships that I've seen work, with examples in which I've been directly involved. In follow-on articles, I'll go into more depth on these and related topics.
Managed Security Service Provider (MSSP) Partnership
The MSSP offers outsourced management of security solutions provided by CyberTechs. Often specialized in threat detection, incident response, and compliance, they combine skilled professionals and advanced technologies to safeguard networks, systems, and data. Examples: GTT-Corero, Cognizant-CyberArk, Wipro-IBM.
Global Systems Integrator (GSI) Partnership
The GSI defines an integrated solution, often involving multiple technologies, which it then markets and sells to its existing customers. Sometimes they implement them on-premise, and other times they host/offer them acting as an MSSP. Ideally start in the geo where the GSI's core competency center resides. Examples: Wipro-IBM, CyberArk-IBM, Snyk-Accenture.
Value-Added Reseller (VAR) Partnership
VARs not only resell the CyberTech's products, but also add value by providing additional services such as customization, integration, training, and ongoing support. This is particularly beneficial for targeting niche markets or industries with complex needs. It's ideal if products can fit into the VAR's existing sales motions, making them more compelling, rather than creating new ones. Examples: CyberArk-Optiv, Snyk-GuidePoint, and Corero-Netceed.
Value-Added Distributor (VAD) Partnership
When a CyberTech needs to scale the number of VARs and onboard across multiple countries, a VAD becomes essential. The VAD becomes an extension of the CyberTech, handling reseller agreements, onboarding, enablement, quoting and fulfillment. Examples: Wipro-Avnet (now TD Synnex), CyberArk-Macnica, Illusive-Ignition, Corero-Kite.
OEM Partnership
An Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM) partnership involves embedding the CyberTech's products into another company's hardware or software solutions. It can be similar to a strategic alliance from a solution development perspective, but the CyberTech's involvement might be completely hidden from the end customers ("white labeled"), as the OEM partner takes complete ownership of marketing, selling and supporting the solution. Examples: Snyk-Atlassian, Corero-GTT.
Technology Partnership
This can be considered a Strategic Alliance, if treated that way, or as more of a functional partnership that makes each partner's solutions more compelling, while they continue to sell separately. CyberArk and Snyk showcase great examples.
Platform Partnerships
This has become increasingly important as more clients are moving workloads to the cloud platforms (AWS, Azure, GCP) and looking to buy solutions through those marketplaces to consume spending commitments. The downside for the CyberTech is perceived commoditization of the offering, but that can be offset by exposure to an exponentially larger potential customer base. Again, CyberArk and Snyk are masters at this.
Strategic or Global Alliance
This is often considered a type of partnership. In reality, it refers to how important a partnership is for a CyberTech, which drives expected investment and ROI. This usually refers to a GSI, MSSP or Technology Alliance.
There are, of course, other kinds of partnerships as well, such as Agents, Academic Partners, and industry-specific partnerships, but this gives you a feel for the major ones that drive growth for most cybersecurity product companies. In follow-on articles, I'll talk more about these types of partnerships in depth, and how to build a partner ecosystem to scale a CyberTech's revenue and reputation.