Trellix launches new partner programme as part of 'channel-first' strategy

The former FireEye-McAfee Enterprise business seeks to boost its XDR offerings via its new ‘Xtend’ program and other product initiatives

Nine months after it was formed from the remnants of FireEye and McAfee Enterprise, cybersecurity giant Trellix on Wednesday unveiled a new partner program that it can truly call its own.

Executives at the San Jose, Calif.-based Trellix, a major XDR provider with nearly 5,000 employees, said the ultimate aim of the new program, called Trellix Xtend, is to deepen the company's already strong ties to the channel.

In an interview with CRN, Bryan Palma, chief executive of Trellix, said the company had previously been using the "incumbent" partner program that it inherited when it was formed earlier this year from portions of the old FireEye and McAfee Enterprise companies, which were separately purchased by Symphony Technology Group for a combined $5.2 billion last year.

"We've been working together to come up with a unified program," Palma said of recent efforts to develop a new partner program. "Xtend really brings together the best of the programs."

Though nearly 90 percent of Trellix's revenue are currently generated via the channel, Palma said "we can do a better job" working with channel partners.

"That's our philosophy now," he said. "Xtend really backs up that commitment."

According to a company press release, key elements of the new program include a training curriculum that supports partners from first-sale to installation of the Trellix XDR platform; providing post-sale "24-7 support and resource" for partners; and support that features "playbooks enabling partners to build managed services and incident response offerings."

The program also includes a "demand creation" component that uses "differentiated sales plays to accelerate customer engagement, increase deal registration, and build sales pipeline."

The new platform was officially unveiled during this week's "Trellix Expand" conference in Las Vegas.

In an interview with CRN, Britt Norwood, senior vice president of global channels and commercial at Trellix, said nearly 90 percent of Trellix's revenue may come via the channel -but the goal is to increase that percentage while also growing the overall revenue pie.

And that requires channel players being both comfortable and excited about the company's new Xtend program, he said.

"First and foremost, we want to reward for service creation," said Norwood, noting Trellix has both XDR and managed XDR offerings. "(The channel) is very much a key emphasis for the company."

Norwood added of Trellix's managed XDR offering: "We are certainly going to work with (channel players) to help them deliver it. We are not interested in competing with our channel partners. We think that we would rather work with them to deliver the right solutions for our customers."

Since its founding at the start of 2022, Trellix has been sharing some resources with sister company Skyhigh Security, formerly McAfee Enterprise's Security Service Edge (SSE) business. Skyhigh was also created as a separate firm earlier this year by Symphony Technology Group, owner of both Trellix and Skyhigh.

Trellix and Skyhigh have been sharing some back-office personnel and other resources in their early months of existence as separate companies. The firms also share space in the same San Jose headquarters building.

But Trellix's creation of its own partner program is yet another sign that the two firms are increasingly going their separate ways while still remaining under the STG ownership umbrella.

Besides the new Xtend program, Trellix also announced at its Las Vegas conference an expansion of its XDR platform, the company said in a press release.

The upgraded XDR engine "provides security operations teams with enhanced playbooks for guided investigations, upgraded threat intelligence through the integration of McAfee and FireEye assets, and the launch of Trellix Event Fabric," which the company said "bridges disparate security data from any cloud provider."

Meanwhile, Trellix also announced at its Las Vegas conference new technology integrations via its Security Innovation Alliance.

One such alliance is with Columbia, Maryland-based Tenable, an exposure management firm whose technology will provide a "risk-based view of a customer's entire attack surface," according to a Trellix press release.