Skyhigh Security Looks To Boost Managed, Professional Services Through Partner Program Expansion

The security service edge vendor — whose partner program initially focused on reseller and distributor partners — has now added offerings to support MSPs and professional services partners, according to Channel Chief Scott Goree.

Skyhigh Security is rolling out a major expansion to its channel program with the aim of enabling more partners to deliver professional and managed services around its security service edge (SSE) platform, Channel Chief Scott Goree told CRN.

The update comes a year after the vendor announced its first partner program following the split of McAfee Enterprise. For the initial phase of Skyhigh’s Altitude Partner Program, the company was focused on working with resellers and distributors, according to Goree, vice president of global partners and alliances at Skyhigh Security.

Now, with the partner program expansion unveiled Thursday, Skyhigh will launch training and certification for professional services partners as well as MSPs.

The move includes a commitment that Skyhigh’s internal team will only deliver professional services for the largest enterprises, which often require direct involvement from vendors, Goree said.

But for the delivery of professional services to all other customers, “we want our partners to drive that,” he said. “We’re carving out a business so [partners] can do the deployment and the professional services on our behalf.”

Key professional services include initial deployment of Skyhigh’s technology as well as expansion to additional capabilities available on the company’s SSE platform, Goree said.

SSE is an integrated set of technologies focused on enabling secure remote access to an organization’s applications and other resources. Core capabilities include ZTNA (zero trust network access) as a more-secure alternative to VPNs, CASB (cloud access security broker) for protecting SaaS usage and SWG (secure web gateway) for protecting internet usage.

Skyhigh Security’s SSE platform has aimed to stand out from competitors by bringing a major focus on data protection, including through its data loss prevention (DLP) technology.

Managed Service Partners

As for Skyhigh’s new offering for managed service partners, the company is aiming to significantly grow what has been a “nascent” business with MSPs to date, Goree said.

In addition to providing API access to the Skyhigh platform, the company is offering MSPs a choice of consumption models — either upfront payment or monthly, pay-as-you-go invoicing, he said.

One executive at an MSP partner of Skyhigh, Fairfax, Va.-based ECS, told CRN that Skyhigh’s introduction of a pay-as-you-go option should prove to be very helpful.

“It puts the power of pricing in our hands, and it speeds up that entire process,” said Trevor Taylor, executive director for the commercial cyber division at ECS.

And in many situations that MSPs run into with customers — such as transitions between license models — the new Skyhigh consumption option “offers a lot of flexibility and agility,” Taylor said.

All in all, the push by Skyhigh to accelerate its business with MSPs is a wise move at a time when customer demand for cloud-delivered security services continues to grow, he said.

Addressing ‘Shadow IT’

Skyhigh’s focus on protecting data through capabilities such as CASB is resonating with customers that are concerned about threats to data, both internal and external, according to Taylor.

For instance, MSPs can take an issue such as unsanctioned “shadow IT” usage and build a program around it with the help of Skyhigh’s technology, he said.

“This is where the value of managed services comes in,” Taylor said. “The reality is, you're going to sell [the platform] into an environment that is overworked and understaffed — and doesn't have the specialties or skills to deliver it to the extent that Skyhigh knows it can be delivered to.”

When an MSP gets involved, however, the full potential of the technology for protecting the customer can actually be realized, he said.

“We’re the experts and we’ve got a program around it,” Taylor said. “So I can tell a customer, ‘Here's what we found for shadow IT. Here's what that means to your organization. And here's what we're going to do about it.’”