Cylance launches partner programme in the UK
Noisy end-point security vendor targets customers from legacy players
End-point security vendor Cylance has launched its first UK partner programme as it steps up plans to steal market share from legacy vendors.
The Cylance Partner Programme was launched in the US last week, and EMEA today, with three tiers - highest-level Emerald, Platinum and lowest-level Gold - and a ‘National' tiering which sits separately in programme.
"Up until now we offered the product, but we only offered it through [distributor] Ignition [in the UK]," said Cylance VP of worldwide channels Didi Dayton.
"What we're trying to do in terms of tiering is give partners access to full resources and make sure that they're signing up for certification and that they have revenue coming in.
"We have partners that started with us through Ignition in October last year, so we have about a year's worth of run-rate with these customers so that momentum, and the partners that have been the first to adopt us, are the ones that are going into the top tier simply because they have the revenue there already."
In the US the revenue target for the top Emerald tiering is $2.2m, the Platinum target is $750k and Gold's is $150k. Dayton said the thresholds will be around half of these in EMEA.
While Emerald, Platinum and Gold mark the three tiers, Dayton explained that the National tier is separate and designed for broader partners than the MSPs and consulting firms that will be in the main structure.
"The National solutions providers - CDW UK for example - their profile is much more of a wide distribution because they have access to a broader market," she said.
"Typically they sell into the SMB and the mid-market, whereas the specialised security solutions providers tend to be selling into the very large enterprise and they're knowledgeable in certain verticals."
"We've had more customers than partners that come to us and say ‘what are you doing, because clearly you're picking up the rest of the world, so you must be doing something right?' We relish the attention."
Dayton explained that Cylance is making a conscious effort to not oversubscribe partners to the programme and cause channel conflicts, saying that the vendor has 256 partners worldwide compared to some of its legacy competitors that have tens of thousands.
Cylance is however being far more aggressive than this when it comes to poaching clients.
"To our competitors, it is open season on a lot of their customers," she said.
"We're definitely seeing ourselves reflected more and more in the press and we're hearing from our partners that they're getting a lot of pressure from the competitors saying ‘don't look over there, whatever you do don't look at Cylance', which honestly has the reverse effect.
"We've had more customers than partners that come to us and say ‘what are you doing, because clearly you're picking up the rest of the world, so you must be doing something right?' We relish the attention."
Carl Gottlieb, founder of Cylance MSP partner Cognition, said the Cylance programme is set up to most benefit partners who put the vendor at the centre of their businesses, not those who are conflicted by selling numerous vendors in the same space.
"The best thing I've seen is that they have shown that they are rewarding the people that really focus [on Cylance]."
"My view is that partners need to do a lot more and really be focusing, not hedging their bets [by selling lots of security vendors], and that's why we are very proud of going out there and saying ‘We're a Cylance platinum partner'."
"We've tested Cylance rigorously, as have our clients, and Cylance continues to prove itself better than the competition."