Palo Alto Networks partners with Ingram Micro to grow to the next level

Enterprise security company Palo Alto Networks may be growing 46% year on year, but that's not enough - it is now focused on an even more aggressive growth curve, and partnering with mega tech distributor Ingram Micro to do it.

Palo Alto Networks had already built up a channel network since it first arrived in the Asia Pacific region four years ago, but the strategy to work with the world's largest distributor of computer and technology products is very much about getting to the next level, said Sharat Sinha, Vice President, Asia Pacific, Palo Alto Networks.  

"Asia Pacific is the emerging theatre. We require massive acceleration. We need very big partners," Sinha explained, touching on Ingram Micro's extended reach and supply chain. "Ingram Micro is the best partner in ASEAN to get that accelerated growth."

John Soumbasakis, Senior Executive Vice President and President Asia Pacific, Ingram Micro Asia Pacific, revealed that Palo Alto Networks had actually been in Ingram Micro's sights for some time. 

"Distribution is the next wave. We'll grow much faster together," he said. "We have a team at the global level who looks at technology and network security is the top for us in opportunity. We need to be ready where the growth is and where the profit is. We were getting requests for Palo Alto Networks; it is one of the best solutions in the network security space."

Francis Choo, Executive Managing Director, Ingram Micro Asia, added: "Our strengths are in channel development, where we recruit, train, empower and arm in a complete end-to-end opportunity, and in market development, from 'for people who build' to 'for people who use'." 

According to Sinha, there are added synergies in joint solutions that Palo Alto Networks has developed with virtualisation partners VMware and Citrix respectively. Both VMware and Citrix are also Ingram Micro partners.

Ingram Micro is currently focusing on a phased introduction of Palo Alto Networks retailers in various countries, with retailers in Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand already active, and Indonesia and Vietnam just starting on the rollout, Choo said. 

"The uptake has been very good. It is not a simple solution. It will take time to build the channel, to get the partners who understand it and can sell it effectively. We are now identifying who will be successful," Soumbasakis added.

While the target audience for Palo Alto Networks can range from companies with 100 employees to those with thousands of staff, Jonathan Tan, Managing Director, ASEAN and Pakistan, Palo Alto Networks, shared that target industries would be the FSI, telecommunications, government and defense sectors.

Palo Alto Networks' growth has been built on protecting enterprises differently from typical security vendors, and is happy to show what it can do with its next-generation firewalls and other solutions. "We provide a device to show full network visibility to the IT manager, and most of the time, they have multiple vulnerabilities operating despite existing security," said Sinha. 

"Enterprises have become more and more connected, and (in doing so) have become more vulnerable. The security landscape has changed. It is about safe application enablement as opposed to (security) based on IP port identification," Sinha said.