NetApp Updates its Unified Partner Program

NetApp has updated its Unified Partner Program to complement and align with its partners’ business capabilities and models. NetApp’s award-winning partner program will be simplified and expanded to deliver a consistent program experience, enable digital transformation for customers, accelerate partner profitability, and provide partners with a predictable business environment.

“As a channel driven organization, NetApp is committed to enabling our partners in the Middle East with the necessary tools to help grow the business. The enhanced Program recognizes partners based on demonstrated expertise and their ability to accelerate the customers’ digital transformation efforts,” said Kristian Kerr, VP Partner Org EMEA, NetApp. “At a time when business continuity and sustainability is key for customers, partners have access to our strong solutions portfolio which gives them an edge in helping customers deal with rapid changes in their business. It gives partners the right motivation to drive customers to build their data fabric architecture and create business opportunities while optimising costs and operations.”

Enhancements to the Unified Partner Program in NetApp FY’21 will:

Simplify. NetApp will unify contracts and agreements; streamline guides and policies; offer fewer, more focused, deal-based incentive programs; and offer growth attainment rebate programs. Expand. NetApp will provide Registered Partners with access to more information, communications, enablement, and training. The updates will also include bringing Cloud First Partners into the NetApp Unified Partner Program and expanding NetApp Learning Services training programs for cloud partners and service providers. NetApp will also expand and update its specializations with new content and benefits, including the addition of SAP and XaaS (“anything as a service”). Invest. NetApp will continue to invest in tools that make business planning and incentive management and measurement simpler and more collaborative for partners. It will offer a bigger payout in its New Account Incentive Program and allow rebates to be paid faster through the Run to NetApp Incentive Program. NetApp also launched a new Tech Refresh Incentive Program that helps partners take advantage of the extensive NetApp installed base. Differentiate. NetApp now organizes partners by Registered, Gold, Platinum, and Star program levels. The program will showcase partners with specific and focused specializations, highlighting partners who provide services across key focus areas, including XaaS, implementation, support, cloud, foundation, hybrid cloud, and converged infrastructure.

Help AG Partners with CrowdStrike

With the protection of endpoint devices being a prime concern for businesses as they adapt to increased remote working in the new normal, Help AG, the cybersecurity arm of Etisalat Digital, today announced its partnership with CrowdStrike Inc., a leader in cloud-delivered endpoint protection. As a member of the CrowdStrike Elevate Partner Program, Help AG will offer the award-winning CrowdStrike Falcon platform for comprehensive, real-time endpoint protection to businesses in the Middle East, with an initial focus on organisations in the United Arab Emirates (UAE).

In recent months, the uptake of cloud-based technologies has been accelerated in the region, owing to the urgent need for the rapid, remote deployment of advanced IT solutions as businesses strive to maintain continuity by enhancing their digital footprint and services. Highlighting the region’s growing acceptance and appetite for cloud-delivered services, Gartner estimates that public cloud services revenue in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) will total nearly $3 billion this year. “This partnership with CrowdStrike aligns with Help AG’s cloud-first strategy and offers our customers near-instant access to one of the industry’s highest-rated endpoint detection and response solutions with no upfront CapEx,” said Stephan Berner, chief executive officer at Help AG.

“Today’s sophisticated attacks leverage exploits, zero days, and hard-to-detect methods such as credential theft and vulnerabilities that are already part of the victim’s environment. CrowdStrike provides a powerful, and an intelligent solution that is simple to deploy and that goes beyond just detecting malware to stopping breaches before they occur,” explained Berner. Commenting on the synergy between the two companies, he said, “CrowdStrike Falcon is unique in that it is a truly stand-alone solution that perfectly integrates with technologies from several of our other market-leading vendor partners. This enhances Help AG’s value-proposition and enables us to offer a comprehensive cybersecurity solution that delivers instant visibility and protection across the enterprise and prevents attacks on endpoints, whether they are on or off the network.”

CrowdStrike Falcon unifies next-generation antivirus (NGAV), endpoint detection and response (EDR), cyber threat intelligence, managed threat hunting capabilities and security hygiene via a single, lightweight agent that is cloud-managed and delivered. The benefits of this unified and lightweight approach include immediate time-to-value, better performance, reduced cost and complexity, and better protection that goes beyond detecting malware to stop breaches before they occur.

In addition to offering consultancy and implementation services for the full spectrum of CrowdStrike’s offerings, Help AG will utilise the Falcon platform within its own Cybersecurity Operations Centre (CSOC) for the further advancement of its Incident Response capabilities. Falcon Insight – the Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR) component of the platform – provides remote visibility across endpoints throughout an organisation’s IT environment, enabling instant access to the ‘who, what, when, where and how’ of an attack.