Monday Morning Impact – June 11

Fortinet Revamps MSSP Program

Fortinet has added a new Silver-level program tier to its MSSP program and has added new services enablement and technical support offerings.

The new tier provides an entry path for VARs and MSSPs migrating to service orientation by providing specialized service creation content, best practices, exclusive webinars, and promotional bundles to help them advance to Gold and Platinum status.

Meanwhile, the Sunnyvale, California-based company’s new Fabric-Enabler Program supports MSSPs certified in the technologies of Fabric-Ready partners with demonstrated expertise in designing, integrating, and managing customized Security Fabric solutions. Fabric-Enabler program members receive specialized API integration, access to threat intelligence sharing methodologies, automation tools, playbooks, and service creation support to help them develop and deliver differentiated and outcome-based services. They can also access joint marketing programs and leverage branded resources.

In addition, new services enablement starter kits for multi-cloud, SD-WAN, automation, and secure access for IoT and OT (operational technology) are designed to help MSSPs create new service offerings around the technology requirements for these digital transformation strategies. These starter kits include engineering fast-track tools, service creation content, sales, marketing, and DevOps playbooks.

New metered, consumption-based licensing enables MSSPs to offer a flexible pay-as-you-grow model to clients based on traffic volume.

“The complexity of protecting distributed IoT-to-multi-cloud networks, increasingly sophisticated threats, and data regulations, coupled with the shortage of skilled security professionals is driving more businesses to outsource their security services,” said Stephan Tallent, senior director of managed security service providers at Fortinet. “With the addition of our Silver Level partner tier and Fabric Enabler program, we are helping our VARs build profitable service models for our MSSP partners.”

Channel Impact^®
Both new and established MSSPs are likely to benefit from this expanded portfolio of tools, expertise, training, and support.

Report: Cloud Security Trails Cloud Usage, Leaving Most Organizations Vulnerable

Bitglass, a Campbell, California-based cloud access security broker, has released a new research report suggesting that while the benefits of cloud applications have fueled widespread adoption in nearly every industry, the adoption of cloud security technologies lags cloud adoption, leaving many organizations at risk of data breach.

The report finds that while 81 percent of organizations globally now use cloud apps, just 25 percent of organizations have adopted single sign-on (SSO), which is typically the first, most basic cloud security technology implemented. SSO combined with multi-factor authentication lowers the risk of phishing and password hacks.

“Cloud adoption hits new highs year after year as organizations worldwide have come to trust platforms like Office 365 and AWS, but it is surprising to see that far fewer organizations have invested in basic technologies like SSO to protect their data in the cloud,” said Rich Campagna, CMO of Bitglass.

Using internally developed technologies, the Bitglass research team scanned the cloud across more than 135,000 companies to identify the cloud services in use. The analysis included cloud productivity suites like Office 365 and G Suite, messaging apps like Slack to file sync and share apps like Box, as well as single sign-on, a basic cloud security technology.

Channel Impact^®
The research points out a solid opportunity for channel partners who can deliver enhanced customer value through established and reliable cloud security solutions.

AT&T and Google Announce Cloud Alliance

AT&T and Google have forged an alliance enabling customers to use Google’s newly launched Partner Interconnect and AT&T’s NetBond for Cloud to establish a secure connection to the Google Cloud Platform. The initiative allows businesses to move workloads across multiple cloud environments without using the public Internet. Through this announcement, Google has joined more than 20 cloud providers in the NetBond for Cloud ecosystem, which gives access to more than 130 different cloud solutions.

In addition, G Suite, Google’s cloud-based productivity suite for business, which includes Gmail, Docs, and Drive, will be available through AT&T Collaborate, a hosted voice and collaboration solution for businesses of all sizes.

This effectively provides businesses with a single source for chat, voice, video and desktop sharing. Businesses can also enable carrier-grade voice reliability and security from within the G Suite applications, which can be used across various devices, regardless of location.

“AT&T provides organizations globally with secure, smart solutions, and our work to bring Google Cloud’s portfolio of products, services, and tools to every layer of its customers’ business helps serve this mission,” said Paul Ferrand, President Global Customer Operations at Google Cloud. “Our alliance allows businesses to seamlessly communicate and collaborate from virtually anywhere and connect their networks to our highly-scalable and reliable infrastructure.”

Channel Impact^®
This collaboration gives businesses access to a full suite of productivity tools, leveraging a more secure network. The intent is to foster enhanced productivity and connectivity.