Bryan Stibbard (Palo Alto Networks)
Palo Alto Networks has celebrated the Australia and New Zealand channel at its partner awards for 2022.
Held at The Jackson in Sydney, the awards ceremony recognised 14 partners for “excellence in leadership, innovation and customer-centricity” in cyber security.
Bryan Stibbard, Palo Alto Networks’ director of channel in A/NZ said partners’ achievements demonstrate the industry’s capacity to support organisations as they face mounting cyber security challenges.
"This past year has proven that no organisation in Australia or New Zealand is immune to cyber attacks and that our industry must continue to evolve, and find new, innovative ways to ensure the security of our customers,” he said. “Our incredible partners leave us with no doubt that this is one of the most agile, innovative, and creative industries in A/NZ.”
Telstra was said to have delivered 2022’s highest revenue, partnering on two of A/NZ’s largest deals. For this, it won the A/NZ Nextwave Partner of the Year award. This year, Innovation Partner of the Year was handed to CyberCX, which “consistently demonstrated an ability to innovate and disrupt” Palo Alto Networks’ solutions.
Growth Partner of the Year was handed to Data#3 for doubling its year-on-year Palo Alto Networks growth for the last five years.
Sydney managed services provider (MSP) Enablis was named Rising Star (Commercial Partner), which helped the vendor achieve 200 per cent year-on-year growth and a 93 per cent deal registration rate. Enablis also won the prize for Australian Technical Excellence Award.
ANZ Distribution Partner of the Year was handed to Westcon NZ, with Palo Alto claiming the distributor led the charge with the onboarding of new registered partners in New Zealand, whilst driving partner promotions and initiatives such as Turbo Rewards.
Vodafone New Zealand meanwhile gained the honour of A/NZ Service Provider of the Year.
The telco signed a strategic partnership with Palo Alto Networks and built A$8 million joint pipeline in FY22 after a few short months, the vendor claimed. It also launched Vodafone Secure Access powered by Palo Alto Networks to the Kiwi market in FY22.
A/NZ Managed Security Service Provider of the Year went to Australian fibre network operator Superloop.
Superloop entered a strategic partnership with Palo Alto Networks to deliver a fully managed SASE solution with their digital-first fibre network, the vendor claimed. “Though it was a large undertaking to onboard these capabilities, the company now has a multi-million-dollar pipeline for FY23,” Palo Alto Networks claimed.
For deploying Palo Alto’s Cortex solution, Datacom NZ was named as the winner. Picking up, A/NZ Cortex Partner of the Year, Datacom was said to have made significant strides with Cortex, being part of one of the fastest deployments of Cortex XSOAR.
A/NZ SASE Partner of the Year went to Victoria’s Cube Networks, which was said to have taken lead in helping its customers in their SASE transformation, using Palo Alto Networks’ solutions.
Deloitte, meanwhile, was said to have developed an innovative cloud security solution that combines Palo Alto Networks’ Prisma Cloud with its own risk analysis platform. For this, it was named A/NZ Prisma Cloud Partner of the Year.
Hyperscalers Amazon Web Services and Google Cloud were handed the awards of A/NZ Cloud Service Provider of the Year and A/NZ Marketing Partner of the Year.
“Palo Alto Networks, together with our partners, is constantly seeking new ways to solve business challenges, and opportunities to create efficiencies for customers, minimise complexity, and ultimately ensure the safety and security of our customers’ most critical information,” Stibbard added.
“We honour our partners, those who are an extension of our team and embody our commitment to the customer - providing superior service and ensuring that enterprise security remains of the utmost priority."
