Michael Khoury, vice president of global channel programs at Palo Alto Networks, shares the vice president of Asia-Pacific and Japanac ecosystems at Palo Alto Networks how cybersecurity vendors can help both cybersecurity AI partners and customers.
The cybersecurity vendor was announced earlier this year after the launch of Palo Alto Networks' Secure AI, a design portfolio. Prisma Airs is a groundbreaking AI security platform that acts as the cornerstone of robust AI protection. It is designed to protect the entire enterprise AI ecosystem at every step from AI apps, agents, models and data.
As Asian companies shift their focus to cybersecurity AI and better manage cybersecurity, Palo Alto Networks is enabling partners to help their customers achieve this.
In an interview with CRN Asia, Palo Alto Networks' Vice President of Global Channel Programs, Michelle shares the Palo Alto Networks ecosystem, Asia Pacific and Japan (JAPAC) vice president of the Palo Alto Networks' ecosystem, Asia Pacific and Japan (JAPAC) how cybersecurity vendors can help cybersecurity AI partners and customers.
How do partners understand and respond to changes in cybersecurity caused by AI? And how do customers implement AI in cybersecurity?
Khoury: Looking at the way in the industry, it's almost impossible to find a company where AI is not part of the strategy. Given our position in our platforming strategy, when we leave through the entire network, AI is embedded in the platform.
Looking at Prisma Airs, AI Security is part of our product offering. So it is truly a natural evolution of our strategy by incorporating AI and having the AI security part of that strategy. You can't see these different products from different solutions from different companies, sew them together, and do everything you can without considering the impact of AI.
Cyberattacks are no longer human-driven, they are becoming AI-driven. It requires a very quick detection feature and needs to be fixed very quickly. And this is where we know how to do better in that space.
We are one of the first cybersecurity leaders to think about AI runtime security and have that offer. And ultimately, our partners will be the ones who will deliver the results to our customers.
I saw: We are here to help our partners. Our partners know that there is definitely a demand for AI Security and every customer we talk to together. Our customers are embracing AI.
What we're hearing is the challenges associated with AI recruitment. All customers say they want to employ AI, but it hasn't become mainstream yet. Much of their AI adoption is still in the pilots. And one of the biggest challenges is cybersecurity. Because I don't know how this will affect me by getting into AI. And that's where your partner understands and hears.
Looking at the market today, many vendors talk about AI security, how many people actually have that AI solution?
And that's the value we bring to our partners and customers. We're not just talking. We are actually rolling out it. Our AI journey began in 2013. All portfolios include precision AI, Genai, machine learning, analytics and more, providing insight.
And this year itself, we launched Prisma Airs, a very important agent AI for our clients to promote adoption. How do I make AI development a runtime from start to finish, and how do I make it available? How do you protect that application layer?
And today, vendors can't offer it, and we are. In fact, we were the first Prisma Airs in India, selling many to many large companies worldwide. So I think the value we bring to our partners really lies in the way they provide the right technology, AI security.
Looking at our partners, we have very strategic partners. We have an advisory partner, GSI. They know about AI and are consulting about it. But the gap they have is technology. So our technology and consulting expertise can deliver results.
Today's customers are no longer buying products and are buying results, which is a way to help your AI journey.
Especially when it comes to providing such a solution, we are ensuring that our partners become trustworthy advisors.
Khoury: Looking at today's training for our learning enablement partners, it's all role-based performance, across the platform, there are roles like business consultant training, for example, architect training, engineer training, essentially analysts.
Training across the portfolio, beyond the entire movement that partners make from consulting, business consulting perspectives, from architect and design perspectives, engineering and deployment perspectives, or support perspectives.
Therefore, partners who promote consulting and advisory have areas that go deeper than partners who do delivery. Throughout the portfolio, partners essentially feel that they need to do not only accrediting, but also learning realization.
Looking at the certification of an engineer, architect or analyst from a soft perspective, we see it as the first step. Essentially, your partner must go beyond that. The first step is to train, but then more practices, whether in a lab or a demonstration environment.
Also, from an after-sales delivery perspective, many of our requirements similarly include co-payments or delivery guarantees. So, in the end, we are always thinking about our customers, and it's not enough to just look at them from their lenses and be certified, but it basically requires practical experience. And this is where our partners work with Palo Alto Professional Services to deliver results for their customers.
And we have to do that several times before we check that the partner is approved. Therefore, complete training from the specialization of certifications includes beyond engineers alone. You'll be deeply involved in ensuring that your partner is ready and delivers customer outcomes and customer success.
And that's why we see the journey and say these are partners. They have the ability to say they are trustworthy advisors to their customers, as they prove they can deliver those results.
I saw: Looking at the focus of the enablement, there are four pillars in the AI conversion, and there are enablements. And if you see it today, we don't just want to fill AI in our portfolio. We want to make sure we are helping you secure your AI journey with Prisma Airs.
The second thing is how to recharge your workforce with AI. We make sure that every employee has AI at their fingertips. They know how to use AI.
I was in India recently with my leadership team. There was a session on enablement, allowing the reader to write a prompt that would give you accuracy in your search. Therefore, it helps to increase productivity and efficiency. So this is what we do.
We are also rethinking how we work with AI. For example, how do you leverage AI to help customer support quickly track, quickly identify issues, troubleshoot and resolve them? What does that mean for our partners? Because our partners can be more efficient. It can solve the problem. We are 100% partner LEDs.
Our services and support are provided by our partners. Therefore, with this customer support, you can leverage AI to quickly track resolutions, providing better customer support.
Regarding the potential for sale, we believe there is no size that fits everything. Customize sales enablements across your sales, pre-sale, post-sales and delivery teams to ensure that sellers have an overall 360 activation. And this doesn't stop at our sellers. Because we see our partners as one team. Partners are expansion teams that connect and engage with customers.
So, with all this possibility we are doing, leveraging AI, we are deploying it together with our partners. So our partners are very excited. More and more, we see our partners invest in us and double with us.
We don't treat them like mere transaction partners. We treat them as one team as part of the expansion arm. So, whatever we do, we make our partners have access to it too.
The only way we can get there is with our partners to achieve our desire to reach US$15 billion in AR by 2030. Because partners are multipliers. Our partners are our virtual team. So, what we do is everywhere. Make sure your partner has access and is part of it.
What more do you want to see from your partner?
Khoury: if I see how business has evolved. I haven't spoken to a partner who wants to resell Palo Alto to make it more competitive. That's not there.
Part of our conversation is always on the value we bring to our customers. And it's even in our entire ecosystem. Considering our resellers, they are no longer resellers. They are actually trustworthy advisors. They provide more consulting and more advisory services. Given our GSI, they see it from more transformational type relationships with these customers.
When we think about our MSTC, it is our route to our fastest growing market. Even when we think about our distributors, many of our distributors are now evolving their models and moving beyond mere distribution. Many of them offer many services, including being delivered on behalf of small partners who can't do that.
Overall, when we think about our ecosystem, we have evolved from the transactional part, previously 15 or 20 years, moving towards a more consulting approach, with more investments in services and resources. They all realized that something has to happen in that you need to sell something. But then it's all about your consulting, your advice, your transition, your managed services, it's all about being part of it.
We feel that all our partners are in there. I know from a global perspective and it helps me to constantly see what services my ecosystem is worth providing to my customers and understand the outcome.
Overall, it's a great insight into where we're headed, as our partners are investing more in Palo Alto and more in resources. So I feel that's positive for us.
