Strategic Cybersecurity Partnerships

A small but market‑defining cohort of partners is now shaping where cybersecurity investment goes next. Out of nearly 300,000 partners that participate in the cybersecurity ecosystem worldwide, the top 500 generate more than $140bn in annual revenue from cybersecurity technology and services, representing over half of the addressable market. Their scale, expertise and service depth give them disproportionate influence over how organisations prioritise security, modernise architectures and select vendors. What sets this group apart is its strength in services. The Omdia Cybersecurity Partner 500 (CP500) captures 57% of all cybersecurity services revenue, far exceeding its share of technology resale. This reflects a structural shift in the market. Organisations are no longer buying point products; they are buying outcomes such as reduced risk, stronger resilience, improved operational maturity and sustained compliance. These outcomes are delivered through strategic advisory, design, deployment and integration, managed operations, incident response, continuous risk management and governance. Partners that deliver capabilities around the leading cybersecurity platforms are becoming the long‑term drivers of security transformation across their customer base. These top 500 partners are also redefining capability models. They are moving toward platform‑driven, AI‑augmented security, scaling SOC operations across hybrid environments, automating detection and response, converging IT and OT security, and embedding identity, compliance and industry‑specific expertise. Together, they are elevating cybersecurity from a defensive cost to a strategic enabler for organizations. The ecosystem remains diverse. GSIs represent just 7% of the CP500 but generate nearly half its revenue. Regional SIs, consulting firms, VARs, MSSPs, SPs and MSPs each play distinct roles, from global transformation to national‑level sovereignty and compliance. The top 30 account for 50% of CP500 revenue, each exceeding $1bn. Partners ranked 31–100 bring regional strength and deep specialisation, while 101–500 form the operational backbone of national cybersecurity across public sector, critical infrastructure and SMBs. The top 10 include: Deloitte Accenture NTT DATA IBM Consulting PwC Tata Consultancy Services EY Orange Cyberdefense KPMG World Wide Technology More detailed information is available to Omdia clients.

It is of no surprise that since I started my position as Cybercrime Director at INTERPOL, I get asked every week what law enforcement needs to combat cybercrime more effectively. While money and access to tools are accurate answers, I would argue that having the right tag team partners to fight alongside us is critical, too. My Cyber Strategy and Capabilities Development team diligently works to onboard new private sector partners to provide INTERPOL and its 196 member countries the ability to leverage specialized expertise that exists outside of typical law enforcement channels. What makes these partnerships essential? ▪️ They bridge jurisdictional gaps that criminals exploit ▪️ They combine technical and legal expertise ▪️ They enable rapid, coordinated responses to emerging cyber threats These collaborations take many forms: information sharing agreements, expert secondments, intelligence analysis support, and specialized training. Each partnership strengthens our global response capability. Operations Serengeti and Grandoreiro were successful, in large part, because of our private sector partners. My team and I recently had the opportunity to discuss these successes and much more. To read further, check out: ➡️ https://lnkd.in/eR6WGPCn ➡️ https://lnkd.in/e9eapWKq #INTERPOL #Cybercrime #PublicPrivatePartnership #Teamwork

This is what separates the best-performing cybersecurity partners from the rest of the pack. The Omdia channels team has just published this important new report based on research of 120 cybersecurity channel partners. These things stand out when looking at the partners who grew their revenue by more than 10%: 1. Investing in dedicated cybersecurity talent 72% have a dedicated division or company-wide focus, yet for 68%, cybersecurity remains under 20% of total business. 64% plan to grow their dedicated security workforce. 2. Leading with software and services 61% earn more than 75% of revenue from software and services. Fastest growth: cloud security, data security, integration services, managed services, and incident response. 3. Prioritizing platform vendors with integrations and AI 63% will focus on platform vendors, with 60% prioritizing platforms with extensive third-party integrations and 58% gravitating toward those with strong AI capabilities. 4. Scaling managed services expertise >90% are expanding managed services, including MDR and other SOC services. 77% plan broader offerings, with 85% prioritizing reselling more from vendors and 62% from MSSPs. 5. Optimizing operations with automation and AI 72% plan to increase the use of AI and automation, 69% will deploy AI agents for specific tasks, and 67% aim to speed up response times to attacks. 6. Expanding consulting and advisory capabilities 82% are prioritizing investment to expand professional services. 78% offer in-depth security audits, and 80% design and implement protection policies. 7. Elevating cyber maturity 65% are actively researching the threat landscape. 90% plan to gain more accreditations to deepen expertise. 82% are growing revenue from compliance and regulatory services. 8. Strengthening customers’ cyber resilience 58% offer pentesting, 50% deliver comprehensive training programs, with simulations and tabletop exercises, and 88% are growing risk assessment revenue.

Cybersecurity is having its AI moment. Every security leader is now building, acquiring, and partnering to execute a dual strategy: 1) AI for Security: Using AI to detect threats 2) Security for AI: Protecting AI workloads While a flurry of acquisitions grabs headlines (Palo Alto Networks <> CyberArk, F5 <> CalypsoAI, Check Point <> Lakera, CrowdStrike <> Pangea), our CB Insights analysis reveals the massive scale of partnerships as the real accelerator, with security leaders racing to build AI partnerships at unprecedented scale, including 300+ in the last 5 years. Why? Partnerships deliver what building and buying can't: ✓ Speed to market when AI threats evolve daily ✓ Access to specialized AI expertise at the frontier ✓ Scale to match a $230B market opportunity by 2032 Already, partnership performance speaks volumes: ↳CrowdStrike: Record $221M net new ARR through AI partnerships ↳Zscaler: AI partnership-driven growth surpassed $1B ARR ↳Palo Alto Networks: Sold 3M+ browser licenses in Q4 for AI agent security ↳SentinelOne: Purple AI grew triple digits with 30%+ attach rates ↳Cloudflare: AI inference requests exploded 4,000% YoY via partnerships ↳F5: Hardware revenue up 39% YoY, driven by AI-ready infrastructure partners The cybersecurity leaders who thrive in the AI era will be the ones who are closest to the emerging frontiers of AI, driven by more partnerships and more acquisitions.

Today’s cyber threats don’t respect vendor boundaries—or national borders. As Michael Sikorski of Palo Alto Networks Unit 42 reminds us, we must mirror that coordination through “competitive allies”—competitors collaborating to defend shared infrastructure. In a compelling Threat Vector podcast, he and J. Michael Daniel, former White House Cybersecurity Coordinator and CEO of the Cyber Threat Alliance, unpack why the real barrier to collaboration isn’t misaligned systems—it’s misaligned cultures and boardroom incentives. This isn’t about goodwill—it’s about national resilience. As adversaries operate in lockstep, defenders must replicate that cohesion—across vendors, sectors, and government—to protect citizens and critical infrastructure. For executives, that means shifting from competitive silos to purposeful partnerships. Embedding threat-sharing into corporate strategy strengthens not just your enterprise—but national defense. https://lnkd.in/gDtyp-kV

Digital Trust & Africa’s Cybersecurity Future: A New Standard of Specialized Alignment 🛡 Africa’s cybersecurity evolution has moved from vision to execution. What began as foundational ambition has matured into a focused ecosystem, one built on trust, intelligence, and operational specialization. Specialized Focus.🔭 & Strategic Collaboration.🛠 As Africa’s threat landscape grows in scale and complexity, so must the clarity of response. At esentry, we’ve expanded our mission beyond managed security, now delivering integrated and automated cybersecurity solutions. Our model prioritizes automation, intelligence, and precision, because scalable protection requires more than just capacity; it demands clarity, speed, and resilience. We do this independently yet intentionally, aligning with trusted technology partners whose platforms complement our delivery. In doing this, we’ve aligned with partners who enable our mission, including Cybervergent , whose digital trust infrastructure and platform technologies such as "TrustPulse", serve as foundational layers for the environments we help secure. This is not a structural tie. It’s a strategic alignment, between two separate organizations focused on what they do best, working side by side when it matters most. An alignment.🔗 A reinforcement.🦾 "Why It Matters Now!" Africa’s digital ecosystem demands more than generic coverage. It requires deep regional insight, real-time response, and the ability to move with precision. This moment calls for organizations that are independent in capability, but collaborative in execution. That’s the model. What This Means for the Ecosystem?📊 For businesses, this offers access to specialized security services without compromise - advanced MDR, Automated Intelligence, and embedded Trust Layers. For Large Enterprises and Government Entities, it proves that African cybersecurity firms are not just responding — they are leading, scaling, and adapting with purpose. The Path Forward 🚀 We’re not just protecting critical systems. We’re actively shaping a digital ecosystem built on trust, agility, and operational depth. This is how Africa’s cybersecurity future is being amplified and esentry is proud to be delivering that future, with clarity, with excellence, and in the right company. 🤝

🎯 𝐈𝐁𝐌 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐏𝐚𝐥𝐨𝐀𝐥𝐭𝐨𝐍𝐞𝐭𝐰𝐨𝐫𝐤𝐬 𝐟𝐨𝐫𝐦𝐞𝐝 𝐚 𝐬𝐭𝐫𝐚𝐭𝐞𝐠𝐢𝐜 𝐜𝐲𝐛𝐞𝐫𝐬𝐞𝐜𝐮𝐫𝐢𝐭𝐲 𝐩𝐚𝐫𝐭𝐧𝐞𝐫𝐬𝐡𝐢𝐩 🤝 Once fierce competitors, IBM and Palo Alto Networks are coming together to transform organizations through security platformization and integrating advanced #AI capabilities. To expand on this, I sat down with Tim Van den Heede, VP of Global Security Services Sales at IBM, and Kevin Kin, Global VP of GTM and SOC Transformation at Palo Alto Networks. Here are the highlights from the conversation: 📌 The partnership is focused on helping clients achieve security platformization by combining technology, service capabilities, and trusted AI. 📌 They're training 1,000+ experts across both companies on the joint value proposition for clients. 📌 Platformization is crucial to address the complexity and alert fatigue plaguing security operations (the average organization uses 83 different security solutions), 📌 The partnership delivers integrated solutions that simplify security, improve response times, and reduce risk. 📌 AI and #agenticAI are incorporated throughout the offerings to automate threat detection and triage alerts and enhance security decision-making. Watch the full interview to see how industry collaboration can transform #cybersecurity to be proactive. #𝐈𝐁𝐌 #𝐏𝐚𝐥𝐨𝐀𝐥𝐭𝐨𝐍𝐞𝐭𝐰𝐨𝐫𝐤𝐬 ✅ 𝗙𝗼𝗹𝗹𝗼𝘄 𝗺𝗲 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗹𝗮𝘁𝗲𝘀𝘁 𝐢𝐧 #𝐀𝐈, #𝐌𝐋, #𝐆𝐞𝐧𝐞𝐫𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐯𝐞𝐀𝐈 𝗿𝗲𝗹𝗮𝘁𝗲𝗱 𝗻𝗲𝘄𝘀 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗮𝗻𝗮𝗹𝘆𝘀𝗶𝘀 - https://lnkd.in/eESnAbFm Link to the full discussion in the comments 👇

The Untapped Partnership Revenue Hiding in Cybersecurity    Most partnerships are built on the same logic: bundle a product, drive adoption, share revenue. But in almost every sector, the search for new streams has hit the same wall: rising CAC, shrinking margins, and a crowded landscape where everyone is competing for the same dollar. That’s why cybersecurity is such a unique lever. Not because of the product category itself — but because of the economics it unlocks. Here’s what most partners miss: every digital customer already faces daily risks. Their devices are vulnerable. Their data is exposed. Their online accounts are under constant threat. These aren’t abstract problems — they’re real pain points that already touch your customer base. When you integrate protection into your ecosystem, you’re not asking customers to buy something new. You’re meeting them with a solution they already need. That alignment is what drives adoption rates most partnerships can only dream about. And when adoption is high, revenue is recurring. Not one-time bursts, but annuity streams that grow with your customer base. We’ve seen partners transform customer support from a cost center into a revenue line. We’ve seen platforms add millions in ARR without adding a single engineer. We’ve seen telcos, OEMs, and digital brands diversify their revenue mix almost overnight by plugging into ready-to-launch protection offers. The key is that none of this requires a new business model. It requires reframing partnerships. Instead of chasing “value-adds” that sit on the periphery, you monetize what’s already sitting at the center of the customer experience: security, trust, peace of mind. For partners, this is not about the category. It’s about the economics. Zero dev lift. Revenue-share. Immediate upside. That’s why I believe the most valuable partnerships in the next five years won’t be the ones chasing the next hot product. They’ll be the ones unlocking hidden revenue streams that align with customer need and require almost no effort to deploy. Cybersecurity happens to be the clearest path today. But the larger principle is universal: the best partnerships don’t just add features. They add profit. The challenge I’d pose to every executive: are you still measuring partnerships by the products they add, or by the revenue they create? Because the market will reward one of those approaches a lot more than the other. 

Southeast Asia is rewriting its digital playbook.     ASEAN's first dedicated digital economy agreement, due for signing this year puts cybersecurity at its core alongside trade, payments, and cross-border data flows. It's the clearest signal yet that digital trust is no longer a technology concern, it's a strategic inflection point.   I've been reflecting on what this means for how we build partner ecosystems here in this region, and three shifts stand out.   • From product resellers to trust architects Customers aren't just evaluating what a partner sells. They're assessing whether a partner can demonstrate cyber readiness as part of every solution they bring to market. That adds accountability and resilience into the conversation. • From transactional relationships to ecosystem participation. The partners winning the most strategic opportunities aren't just managing pipelines, they're building relationships across industry, academia, and government. Collaboration has become a channel capability, not just a sales strategy. • Moving from alignment to operational collaboration - Real differentiation is happening where partners can operate together, through joint incident response, shared visibility, and real-time threat intelligence. Customers are paying attention to how partners show up when it matters most.   Growth today is not just about reach. It is about how well we work with our partners to collectively build and sustain trust.   How are you evolving your partner strategies to deliver trust at scale? Palo Alto Networks Claribel Chai Sarene Lee Adi Rusli Bernadette Nacario Quang Huy Hoang Watchara Jiracharoensuwan Tatchapol Poshyanonda Erik PapirSaleh M 'Haji' Munshi  

NVIDIA is entering the cybersecurity market following OpenAI, Anthropic, and Google.   The focus is operational technology (OT) and industrial control systems (ICS). NVIDIA announced partnerships with Akamai, Forescout, Palo Alto Networks, Siemens, and Xage Security to secure OT/ICS using NVIDIA’s AI and accelerated computing (link in comments 👇) Highlights:  🔹 Focus is on OT and ICS environments where uptime and safety are critical 🔹 NVIDIA is positioning BlueField DPUs as a foundation for real-time OT threat detection. 🔹Deliberate partner mix: Akamai (segmentation), Forescout (visibility), Palo Alto Networks (inspection), Siemens (integration), and Xage (identity/zero trust). My take: 1️⃣ Cybersecurity is a core growth market for AI vendors. Everyone feels it.  2️⃣ Surging robotics will explode telemetry data and elevate cyber-physical risks, requiring next-level processing. 3️⃣ NVIDIA’s Embedded Moat: Integrating directly into the OT/ICS security stack secures a massive win in a notoriously sticky, long-lifecycle market. 4️⃣ OT/ICS security is a tough market, so ecosystem partnerships are the right strategy. No market shakeup is expected. 5️⃣ Puzzled by not seeing Schneider Electric and ABB as part of the partnership.