Inside Illumio’s New Enlighten Partner Program with Todd Palmer, SVP of Global Partner Sales and Alliances

As cyber threats grow, so does the need for trusted partners to guide organizations on their Zero Trust security strategy.  

Illumio’s new Enlighten Partner Program is built to equip partners with the tools, resources, and predictable revenue models they need to succeed.  

To learn more about the program, I sat down with Todd Palmer, Senior Vice President of Global Partner Sales and Alliances at Illumio. We discussed how Illumio’s evolved partner program is designed to meet partner needs and fuel their growth in today’s — and tomorrow’s — cybersecurity market. Here’s what he had to say.

Can you tell us what makes the Illumio Enlighten Partner Program unique?

We’re incredibly excited to launch this partner program. Our focus is to support partners in building profitable, predictable businesses while helping our shared customers maximize the value of their investment in Illumio Zero Trust Segmentation.  

Many companies see partners as a channel for sales. We see them as an essential part of our go-to-market strategy. They deliver value beyond just transacting a sale.  

We’ve structured everything — from curriculum, tools, access to expert resources, to flexible pricing — to align with our partners’ needs.  

We’ve built it all to ensure our partners have the resources to succeed. This includes integrating Illumio into the solutions they currently bring to market and building pipeline for their business. We also provide support to help them gain the experience and capacity to implement and integrate Illumio into their customers’ environments. They’ll have the tools to manage and support it whenever needed.

That dedication to building a truly partner-focused go-to-market model is what sets Illumio and the Enlighten Partner Program apart.  

What drove Illumio to make these changes to its partner program?

Partner feedback was foundational in designing the Illumio Enlighten Partner Program. Over the past year, we continuously reached out to our partners to understand what they need to invest in and grow their business.  

Two of the most significant insights we learned were:

• The importance of managed services: Many of our partners are offering managed services to their customers in addition to implementation and integration services. We focused on creating robust training, roadmaps, and tools to guide them on the journey to build lucrative service offerings powered by the Illumio platform.  

• The need for predictability: Partners need clarity on earning potential and predictably of margins to confidently invest in building their Illumio practices.  

These insights were key to how we evolved our partner program. And by addressing them, we believe our partners will have the confidence and resources they need to build thriving, sustainable businesses.

How will this program help partners keep up with the ever-changing cybersecurity landscape?

The microsegmentation market is maturing in front of our eyes. This growth is fueled by several factors, including increasing regulatory requirements, rising data breach costs, and the industry-wide shift to Zero Trust fueled by industry analysts.

These regulatory requirements and government regulations are encouraging public and private organizations to adopt microsegmentation as a core security measure.

With the average cost of a data breach reaching $4.8 million, companies need to think differently. They need to assume a breach will happen and build a security strategy that will protect their business.  

Gartner predicts that 60% of companies will have a microsegmentation strategy by 2026, up from just 5% today. That’s a tremendous opportunity for Illumio partners.  

The momentum in the market can fuel the growth of their security practices. Our new program is structured to evolve alongside this demand.

We’re hearing a lot about the cybersecurity skills gap. How does Illumio’s new partner program help address this challenge?

The cybersecurity talent shortage is significant. Last I heard, there are roughly 4 million unfilled security positions globally.  

As a result, many companies lack in-house expertise. They’re looking to partners to fill the gaps with security architecture design, recommendations, implementation, and managed and operational services.

This program gives our partners the curriculum, tools, resources, and pricing models to meet the needs of their customers.  

Where do you see this program heading in the future?

As the microsegmentation market matures, we'll continue to invest and evolve the program to meet customer demand and our partners’ evolving needs.  

The three areas where I see us continuing to invest and add to the program include:

• Services enablement

• Technology alliance integrations

• Business development

The demand for security-related services and expertise will continue to grow. Our program will evolve to meet that demand. We’ll offer more training, access to lab environments, and expert resources to empower our partners to provide the services their customers need.  

And as Zero Trust microsegmentation is integrated into the fabric of our customers' businesses, we’ll continue to increase the number of technology alliance partnerships. We want to offer proven, out-of-the-box integrations that our customers and partners can easily access and implement in their environments. This will extend the services our partners can offer their customers and the value they receive from Illumio.  

We’ll also continue to increase the number of marketing campaigns, collateral, and market development funds (MDF) available to our partners to help them grow their pipeline and meet the demand in the market.  

Learn more about the new Illumio Enlighten Parter Program. Register to become a member today.