Together with our partners, we have an opportunity to capitalize on what’s next in the industry. And “what’s next” is centered on the rapid growth of the hybrid workforce, which continues to require organizations to have complete access to their applications at any time, from anywhere. As a result, the use of cloud environments has expanded rapidly, providing organizations key benefits, like seamless connection and ease of use. At Palo Alto Networks, our focus is on the end-user and meeting them where they consume technology in the cloud.
A recent study from Gartner reveals that 92% of organizations employ a multi-cloud strategy, while 82% use a hybrid cloud strategy, combining both public and private clouds. Multi-cloud and hybrid environments often provide a new layer of complexity that can be both challenging to manage and secure.
Additionally, the accelerated adoption of the cloud has also impacted customers’ tech procurement preferences, with many demanding solutions that are flexible, easy to access, quick to deploy and can complement their cloud environments. To address this growing need, CSPs created cloud marketplaces that achieve just that – customers get a simple, elegant way to consume technology, all from the convenience of an online portal.
Following the Puck to the Cloud Marketplace
The proliferation of cloud marketplaces is no longer a far-off goal for the industry; it's where the puck is now. Our customers are increasingly using cloud marketplaces to buy, manage and deploy critical solutions, and they are reaping the benefits.
We partner with large cloud service providers (CSPs), like AWS, Google Cloud and Microsoft to sell our suite on their cloud marketplaces, giving consumers a simple way to purchase and access vital cloud security solutions. This includes some of the top products we’ve rolled out in the last year, like our Cloud Next-Generation Firewall Solution, Prisma Cloud and more. We understand that delivering innovative cybersecurity solutions is only as useful as our ability to tailor those solutions to our customers’ needs, including where they want to buy our solutions and how they want to deploy them.
The Key to Winning the Game: The Power of the Team
We also need to anticipate where the puck is going to be next. Our diverse ecosystem is critical to our ability to provide partners with the solutions they need to help their customers better manage today’s evolving threat landscape. For example, one major opportunity for partners lies in providing customers with a consolidated security platform. Many businesses are struggling with the complexity caused by “tool sprawl,” or leveraging too many security tools to protect their infrastructure and not having the talent resources to manage them. According to a recent Gartner survey, 65% of surveyed customers want to consolidate their security vendors to improve risk posture and reduce complexity. The customer appetite for tool and vendor consolidation is significant and our partners have a huge opportunity to address this need by delivering the Palo Alto Networks platform.
Additionally, the largest marketplaces are creating ways for Solution Providers to sell in the cloud, enabling customers to leverage a trusted partner who has expertise around their business with ease of purchasing via a marketplace. At the end of the day, it's all about providing value to our customers, and the only way we’ve succeeded in achieving that goal is through close collaboration with our trusted ecosystem of partners.
For over a decade, our award-winning NextWave partner program has been the catalyst for partner change, guiding our partners to success by enabling them to capitalize on market transitions. We’ve seen many of our Solution Providers shift to a services-led model that enables them to be trusted consultants to our joint customers. To support this change, we continue to invest in, grow with and optimize our partner program, so our partners can easily meet enterprise customers' needs. Our new NextWave Services Path, Service Specializations and Service Proficiencies will continue enabling partners to solve complex security problems all the way through deployment to lifecycle management.
We’re excited to work with our partners and create more opportunities to enhance their experience and ultimately support, empower and secure our customers.
Learn more about the Palo Alto Networks NextWave partner program and our trusted partner ecosystem’s vital role in enabling security for all.