Splunk enters the ‘Partnerverse’ with new channel program

US-based data platform vendor Splunk has revealed details of its new partner program, which comes with a new badge system that includes focus areas on cloud migration and zero trust services.

The new Splunk Partnerverse Program, as it is called, is designed to help empower the vendor’s network of over 2,200 partners to expand technical expertise, demonstrate core competencies with its new badge system and showcase joint customer success.  

From 19 October, Splunk’s active partners were able gain access to the new Partner Program Framework and three initial badges under the program highlighting cloud migration, zero trust services and authorised learning excellence.  

However, the Splunk Partnerverse Program will be more broadly available from February next year, and will support thousands of distributors, global systems integrators, service providers, original equipment manufacturers, technology alliance partners and value-added resellers.

The program is designed to differentiate partner competencies and enhance offerings across industries, technology and use cases.

Under the Partnerverse Program’s new badging system, partners can earn different badges to help customers identify which partners have the right expertise to meet their needs.  

In addition to cloud migration services, zero trust services and authorised learning, the badges will include observability, security, managed service and system integration, with partners able to build on their technical expertise through clear, progressive enablement pathways and certifications.   

The cloud migration services competency under the new system features a professional services kit and the ability to configure customer deployments for Splunk Cloud, further expanding partners’ professional services practice development.

The Partnerverse Program is also designed to recognise the importance of identifying the right partner and services, offering a new partner solutions catalogue that highlights partner capabilities and innovations globally.  

Additionally, the new program offers opportunities with cloud providers such as Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Google Cloud to help organisations migrate. It also provides the ability to extend cloud-based data innovation and security with technology partners such as SAP and Intel.  

“The Splunk Partnerverse Program helps customers identify and collaborate with the right partners faster and leverage proven solutions to reach their critical missions and outcomes in the cloud and underscores our continued commitment to our partner network,” said Teresa Carlson, Splunk president and chief growth officer.

The announcement comes as Splunk expands its partnership with Accenture with the creation of the Accenture Splunk Business Group.

Supported by approximately 8,000 Accenture people skilled in Splunk, the new group brings together dedicated professionals from both companies to help equip organisations to be insights-driven.

“When we talk about full-scale digital transformation, that means capitalising on insights and innovation across your entire business and IT,” said Sanjeev Vohra, global lead, Accenture Applied Intelligence. “Our partnership with Splunk will help our clients improve their ability to gain critical real-time insights from their data through collaboration with Accenture’s myWizard, AI Operations and other key assets.”

Earlier this year, Splunk teamed up with other software tools developers to create its Observability Cloud offering.

The managed cloud service aims to bring together infrastructure, application performance, digital experience, and synthetic monitoring capabilities with log investigation and “smart” incident response for a holistic observability platform.

Splunk, alongside rival vendors such as Sumo Logic, Dynatrace, Data Dog, New Relic and newcomer Honeycomb, are increasingly looking to offer a comprehensive observability suite out of the box, rather than relying on developers to bring together the various tools and instrumentation techniques required to gain any semblance of observability today.

With Observability Cloud, Splunk is providing a single interface for various core logging, monitoring, and incident-response dashboards and tools, including machine learning-powered alerting.