Aryaka Brings On New Global Channel Chief Nick Alagna, Reveals 'Significant' Global SASE Investment, Expansion

Nick Alagna, a longtime cybersecurity and channel leader, is taking over at the helm of Aryaka's channel as the company looks to grow through its channel with new As A Service SASE selling models in the U.S. and across the globe.

SASE specialist Aryaka has brought on Nick Alagna as Aryaka's new vice president of global channels to extend the reach of its unified SASE-as-a-service messaging to more partners in new regions, according to the company.

"One of the coolest things, and it was a key for me in coming over here, is that it's a channel-led go-to-market strategy. We're really leaning on our partners to help us scale. "I’m excited to help Aryaka grow and help our partners build longstanding relationships and profitable businesses," Alagna told CRN in an interview.

In addition to the company's new channel chief, Aryaka has also hired a couple of key global leadership roles as the company on Tuesday also revealed a significant go-to-market investment across the Asia-Pacific region as demand for SASE across the globe rachets up. The new leaders include Vice President and General Manager of Asia Pacific Nitin Ahuja who joined the company last month from cybersecurity software and services provider Imperva, and William Ho as a strategic advisor in the Asia-Pacific region.

"We’re assembling a lot of top-tier talent, and then there’s a really great team already in place with a foundation of really good, strong partners," Alagna said.

[Related: Aryaka Adds More AI To Flagship SASE-As-A-Service Offering, Simplifies Pricing To Boost Consumption-Based Buying]

Alagna has spent more than two decades in the cybersecurity space. He joined Aryaka in January from Akamai Technologies, where he spent twelve years in three different roles, the most recent being area vice president of channel sales and strategic partners. He also has held account director and business development positions for the likes of Oracle and Cisco Systems. Prior to that, Alagna was a co-founder of WholeSecurity, a venture-backed startup in which he built out the channel ecosystem. The company was acquired by Symantec in 2005.

Alagna in his new role with Aryaka will build and scale the company's global channel ecosystem, the companies said.

"I've seen the power of partners, especially in cybersecurity, and how they can help deliver more value to customers. Customers really view those partners as trusted advisors and lean on them from advisory, to ongoing managed services across the spectrum of value-add that a partner can deliver," Alagna said.

Aryaka in February introduced new pricing and packaging of its offerings with the intention of helping partners boost the as-a-service sales model. Enterprises are now charged based on the number of sites and end users. The pricing change gives enterprises more flexibility with their distributed, multi-cloud environments, especially in light of increasing AI use cases and new demands on the network, the Santa Clara, Calif.-based company told CRN.

The new pricing and packaging is making it easier for partners to quote, and for customers to buy and consume. This model will help Aryaka and its partners “do more together,” Alagna said.

"We’ve removed a lot of the friction from our partner ecosystem with the new pricing and packaging -- very simplified models, and it’s really what our partners and our customers were asking for. We’ve got that massive growth to go capture as we shift from SD-WAN to SASE," he said.

Alagna said that he will be working alongside the new APAC leaders as the company expands its channel reach overseas.

"My focus is going to be paralleling that [expansion] with our channel ecosystem, and building out the ecosystem in APAC and EMEA," he said.

Alagna is taking over at the helm for Aryaka’s former Senior Vice President of Global Channel Sales Craig Patterson, who left the company to take a role as global channel chief for cybersecurity company Exabeam in January.

As part of the company's global expansion plans, Aryaka has added new partnerships with NI+C in Japan, a joint venture founded by solution provider behemoth NTT and IBM, and ASV Platforms in Australia, an exclusive Aryaka partner offering SASE solutions to businesses in Australia and New Zealand to further Aryaka's sale reach in these countries, the companies said.