Written By: Krithiwas Neelakantan, Channel & Alliances Leader, Palo Alto Networks
In 2022, digital transformation continues to be a top business priority, comparable only to the need to build robust security infrastructures in the face of rising cyber-attacks. This creates new opportunities for security service providers and for the larger channel community to offer agile, innovative solutions and create enhanced value for their customers. Following are some of the trends that will fuel partner evolution and journey in the new year:
- The meteoric rise of bitcoin will create a well-funded- adversary:
As we grapple with regulatory uncertainty around cryptocurrencies across the world, cryptocurrency-related security concerns will continue to dominate the threat landscape. Channel partners will have to evolve from traditional technology advisors to business consultants by helping organizations determine their attack preparedness and close any existing gaps in security systems. Additionally, the partner ecosystem will need to collaborate with security providers to help customers adopt a prevention-based approach to cybersecurity. Bringing AI and Automation together with the scale and leverage possessed by the channel will aid in securing networks for the long term.
- As physical and digital lines blur, who or what we trust will impact our security even more:
The ubiquity of IoT and smart devices in our everyday lives has created reams of digital data that reside in physical places, further blurring the lines between the real and online world. Any vulnerabilities in this hyper-connected security infrastructure can be exploited which may have far-reaching impacts in our real life. Channel Partners expertise will therefore be crucial in helping CISOs understand the IoT estate, assess the risk, and take the appropriate steps to secure the network. Partners will also play a significant role in educating enterprises on Zero Trust – the key to beat the IoT threat – and what they need to do to develop this framework. Furthermore, network segmentation by implementing physical and virtual firewalls will be the key to reducing the attack surface.
- Attackers will set their eyes on countries’ critical infrastructure:
Critical infrastructures, with their confidential and lucrative databases are emerging as major targets worldwide. In 2022, they will continue to garner negative attention from attackers necessitating the presence of global policy and regulatory collaboration. The channel will need to up their game by helping enterprises underpin security at the core of any potential enterprise architectures and accordingly design strong threat prevention and response strategies. Protecting the supply chain from a constantly evolving threat landscape that includes cybergangs, state-sponsored attackers, and more will become a key focus point for channel partners. This will need to be done proactively across sectors, keeping current and incoming regulations in mind which could turn out to be a tricky situation to navigate.
- A borderless workforce needs a borderless solution
As the work-from-anywhere culture goes mainstream, the channel community will need to work with customers to accurately define what constitutes a distributed workforce – encompassing remote, hybrid, and on-campus employees. Partners will also play a key role in the restructuring of security architectures as they will help customers pinpoint what is campus, branch, remote, and more. The community will see more demand for remote workforce management solutions such as Secure Access Service Edge (SASE) that will bring about both security and operational efficiency. We will also see demand for all-remote access technologies go up. SaaS solutions will come front-and-center as they remain easy to operate and scale in remote environments.
- The API economy will usher in a new era of digital frauds and exploits:
Greater reliance on digital services will usher in a new era of digital fraud including identity theft and unauthorized data collection. The rise of open-banking and hyper-growth of Fintech, poor programming, or security misconfigurations at the application interface levels (API), could leave some more susceptible to frauds as new users of digital banking. The onus will, therefore, lie on the channel community to drive conversations around ‘Shift-left’ thinking, helping customers implement security across the application lifecycle. Awareness campaigns and educational programs will be central to retaining consumer trust and enhancing anti-fraud measures. In addition, channel partners will have to address the challenges of integrating security into modern app development by combining skills from across the board: organizations, security providers and their own teams.
To conclude, partners will be instrumental in providing complementary solutions to help customers implement the best security architectures. But most importantly, they will be critical in rebuilding cybersecurity as a team sport where the responsibility for security is a shared one, borne equally by all the key stakeholders- security providers, channel partners, businesses, and individuals.
