Thales Debuts New Partner Program ‘Harmonized’ With Imperva Cybersecurity Division

While the company is continuing to run two partner programs, Thales has now ‘mirrored’ the benefits and requirements across each, Channel Chief John Polly tells CRN.

Thales and its Imperva cybersecurity division are rolling out revamped versions of their respective channel programs that are “mirrored” to each other, with an aim to simplify engagement for partners amid a massive growth opportunity in data security, Thales Channel Chief John Polly told CRN.

The updates, set to be announced Thursday, follow the closure of Thales’ $3.6 billion acquisition of Imperva in December 2023 — and aim to provide partners with an easier way to interact with the programs as well as tap into expanded investments by the company, Polly (pictured) said.

In short, the company has now “harmonized” the Thales and Imperva programs, he said.

“That means, if you are a partner and you want to engage with Thales, we have the same discount structure in place across the portfolio. We have the same training requirements across the portfolio,” said Polly, who is vice president of global channel and alliances at Thales.

Ultimately, “we needed flexibility and we needed simplicity so our partners can interact with us the way they want to,” he said.

At Optiv, No. 25 on CRN’s Solution Provider 500 and a partner of both the Thales and Imperva programs, is seeing major advantages in the program updates, according to Scott Goree, senior vice president for partners, alliances and ecosystems at Denver-based Optiv.

With Optiv’s hundreds of OEM relationships to manage, this move by Thales is “music to my ears,” Goree said.

The perpetual question for a solution and service provider like Optiv, he said, is “how do I lean in with fewer, deeper relationships and have a more meaningful activity together? Because we're not just treating all 500 [OEMs] exactly the same.”

With the Thales-Imperva announcement, “to see two entities that we have a phenomenal and growing business with, come together and align in this way — it just adds more simplicity,” Goree said. "[Now we] have one partner portal, one program, one pricing structure, and then also have the flexibility to engage in the way we want.”

Other key updates unveiled Thursday include enabling partners to begin engaging with both the Thales and Imperva programs even if they only have an existing contract with one of the programs, Polly said.

Additionally, for partners that are common to both programs, Thales is now allowing partners who fall into differing tiers across the programs to automatically move up to the higher tier, he said. For instance, if a partner is currently in the gold tier in one program but not in the other, the partner can now be moved up to the gold tier in both programs, according to Polly.

At present, the harmonization of the programs is focused around the data security portfolios at both companies, he noted.

“We can now go, with our partners, with one story around data [security],” Polly said, which includes offering capabilities for discovery, control, protection, analysis and visualization.

On the Imperva side, meanwhile, significant updates have included replicating a demand-generation incentive in the Thales program to the Imperva side, according to Polly. The company has made a sizable investment to bolster co-marketing on the Imperva program, he noted.

Goree said the demand-generation investment is crucial, given the way it recognizes that channel partners such as Optiv are “no longer just an overlay — we're a partner sales team.”

With the expanded investment from Thales “to drive pipeline on behalf of our mutual sales teams — that shows the value of the channel [to the vendor],” he said. “Having easy access to those funds across both Imperva and Thales is wildly helpful.”