‘There’s a clear desire to win new business together’: UK partners on Proofpoint Protect
Channel execs reflect on the announcements made during the event, the importance of agentic AI, and their evolving partnership with the vendor
On Thursday, cybersecurity vendor Proofpoint held the London edition of its Protect tour, gathering partners from all around the UK.
Following EMEA variants in Zurich, Vienna, and Zurich, the US-based firm teased a new tech revolution, characterised by the collaboration between human and agentic security.
CRN sat down with Softcat and Gradian, two of the partners present at the event, to talk about their relationships with Proofpoint, their AI journey, and whether the collaboration could be improved.
Will Day, cybersecurity alliance lead at Softcat
What are your main takeaways from the event?
“What’s been said today aligns well with our own perception of Proofpoint.
“We’ve seen them evolve; email security is no longer their sole focus.
“The shift toward a more integrated, data-led workspace is clear, and the data security element is particularly strong for us.
“Customers no longer just want DLP as they did a few years ago; Proofpoint has built a solid platform, with some smart acquisitions behind it. We see them as a real leader in that space.”
Is there anything that you were particularly looking forward to that was addressed? Or anything that surprised you?
“AI, of course, is front and centre at every event right now.
“Proofpoint’s approach has been a good one; speaking to the right audience, showing how customers can use generative AI and data separation to strengthen their security posture.”
What is your relationship with Proofpoint? Are you a long-time partner?
“We’ve been a Proofpoint partner for a number of years, but the last three have been especially strong, leading to triple-digit growth in that period, both in customer numbers and business volume.
“The channel team leading the partnership is excellent, and we’re seeing strong engagement at the sales level.
“Of course, no partnership is perfect, but the people involved really understand Softcat and the channel.
“There’s a clear desire to win new business together while also working jointly on existing accounts to expand them and deliver projects collaboratively.
“Overall, we’re very happy with where the Proofpoint partnership stands today.”
Are there particular sectors where you’re seeing demand for Proofpoint’s solutions?
“As a business, we’re expanding into the mid-market and enterprise space, and Proofpoint is strong there.
“Historically, Softcat focused more on SMB and mid-market, but now we’re targeting larger and more complex customers, a space where Proofpoint fits very well.
“We’re also expanding internationally. As we build our US team, Proofpoint is one of the vendors we want to work with closely there.
“In terms of services, it’s still mainly a resale partnership at this stage.
“We don’t deliver Proofpoint services directly in-house, but we do partner where needed, and that side of the relationship will likely mature over the coming years.”
Do you also use Proofpoint solutions internally?
“Not currently.”
Rohit Dixit, EVP and chief customer officer at Proofpoint, mentioned three “revolutions,” with the latest being around humans and agentic AI security. Where do you see yourselves on that journey?
“We’re becoming more comfortable as the weeks go on. We’ve even built a new internal function focused on data, automation, and AI.
“The big question everyone’s asking is: how do you monetise AI today? For us, it ties directly into data and automation, the new frontier of security.
“Identity security is another major focus area, even if it’s less directly linked to Proofpoint.
“We’re still early in our journey, but we’re training our teams and helping them develop the right skills to have meaningful conversations with customers.
“Like Proofpoint’s evolution over the last six to ten years, this will be a multi-year journey. It’s not just a passing trend.”
Is there anything Proofpoint could do to better support you?
“Everything we’ve asked for over the last couple of years has been delivered. We don’t see any friction points or unanswered issues at the moment.
“My main priority is getting our sales teams working together seamlessly.
“Once that’s in place, customer satisfaction and business growth will follow naturally.
“What stands out to me is Proofpoint’s focus on the channel in the UK and their openness.
“We’ve had access to senior leadership; we met CEO Sumit [Dhawan] and CRO Blake [Sallé] recently, which isn’t something you can say about every vendor.
“They’re clearly investing time and energy into partnerships like ours, and we feel that.”
Andrew Warren, CRO at Gradian
What are your main takeaways from the event?
“What really stood out to us was how the cybersecurity conversation has continued to shift - cyber resilience in today’s threat landscape is all about empowering people and machines to work together.
“We know the human error challenge in cybersecurity is nothing new; negligent, malicious, or compromised employees have long been the main source of data loss for organisations.
“Today, the widespread use of AI has exacerbated this human risk, and organisations must also be embracing AI in their security strategy to combat this.
“It reaffirmed that the future of cyber protection is about enabling users, so they are an intrinsic part of the security process and giving organisations the agility to respond in real time.”
Is there anything that you were particularly looking forward to that was addressed? Or anything that surprised you?
“It was great to hear about how Proofpoint is evolving its Information Protection offering around adaptive controls and smarter risk detection.
“What was interesting is how quickly some of the autonomous capabilities are maturing: systems that don’t just alert, but can take action, without waiting for human input.
“It’s a subtle shift, but a big one.”
What is your relationship with Proofpoint? Are you a long-time partner?
“We’ve been working with Proofpoint for some time now.
“This partnership is more than product resale, it’s about aligning on a vision: helping customers build defences that are smarter, more adaptive and less disruptive, examining threats and user behaviour in real time and combining our years of DLP expertise with technology that easy to manage and performs as intended.
“We work especially close together in sectors such as finance, public sector, healthcare and other regulated industries.”
Rohit Dixit, EVP and chief customer officer at Proofpoint, mentioned three “revolutions,” with the latest being around humans and agentic AI security. Where do you see yourselves on that journey?
“We believe this is a meaningful shift.
“For years, security has mostly been about tools reacting after something happens.
“Now we’re moving toward systems that understand human behaviour, spot anomalies, and act early.
“At Gradian we’re already embedding AI-based behavioural insight and automated policy enforcement into our managed services to reflect that shift.”
Are there particular sectors where you’re seeing demand for Proofpoint’s solutions?
“We’re seeing strong interest in financial services, the public sector and healthcare among other regulated industries.
“These industries handle large volumes of very sensitive data and must comply with tight rules and regulations, so they naturally gravitate to solutions that offer both strong protection and intelligent automation.
“We’re also noticing professional services and legal firms recognising that they need more than just perimeter security.”
Do you also use Proofpoint solutions internally?
“We use Proofpoint’s technology ourselves: from email and cloud threat protection to data loss prevention and insider threat monitoring.
“We’re also actively exploring how AI-driven automation can make our responses faster and more insightful.
“Using these tools ourselves gives us first-hand experience of what works, and what customers should expect.”
Is there anything Proofpoint could do to better support you?
“Our relationship with Proofpoint is going from strength to strength, with great collaboration between our respective teams to help customers be successful in their fields.
“The Protect Tour is a great example of that, and we’d love more of those moments.”