The Next Chapter of the Illumio MSP Program and What It Means for Partners

The managed services business is at an inflection point.

Customers expect ongoing protection, measurable outcomes, and partners who can help them reduce risk over time, not just deploy tools and move on.

That shift is exactly why Illumio is making updates to its Managed Service Provider (MSP) program.

The program has matured alongside the market, shaped by real-world customer experience and designed for partners who want to build sustainable, high-value security services around breach containment.

A program that’s maturing because the market is

Over the past few years, Illumio has worked closely with MSPs and MSSPs across regions and industries.

That experience made one thing clear: partner success depends on more than participation alone. It requires the right structure, the right enablement, and a shared standard for how services are delivered.

The relaunched MSP program reflects that learning.

It’s more focused and more rigorous, with an emphasis on quality and long-term success rather than sheer scale. Expectations are clearer, training goes deeper, and partners are better aligned with how Illumio itself delivers services to customers.

For those willing to invest, the return is tangible. The program creates real differentiation in the market, supports higher-value service offerings, and makes it easier to build predictable, recurring revenue over time.

Why Illumio makes sense for managed services

Breach containment isn’t a one-time deployment.

Illumio was built to deliver breach containment across hybrid, multi-cloud, and on-premises environments without relying on brittle controls or centralized enforcement.

That foundation makes Illumio a natural fit for managed services.

For MSPs, this opens the door to operationalizing breach containment as a service, delivered in a way customers can consume as operating expense rather than a massive upfront project.

It’s not about selling licenses and walking away. It’s about staying engaged as environments evolve, risks change, and attackers look for new paths to move laterally.

Stronger enablement, by design

One of the most important updates to the program is a higher standard for enablement.

Illumio is expanding certification requirements beyond delivery alone to include sales, pre-sales, and demo certifications, in addition to technical and services-focused training.

To support this, the Illumio partner training program includes a mix of self-paced virtual learning, instructor-led courses, and hands-on experiences, all available at no cost to participating partners. This ensures teams can build deep expertise without adding friction or upfront expense.

These change reflects how customers actually buy and consume managed security services.

To successfully deliver breach containment as a service, partners need more than technical expertise. They need a clear understanding of where Illumio fits within a broader security stack, how it complements detection and response tools, and how to position containment outcomes in business and risk terms.

These expanded certifications ensure that MSPs can:

• Confidently articulate how Illumio fits into modern breach containment strategies
• Design services that align detection, response, and containment into a cohesive offering
• Demonstrate value through demos that connect technical capabilities to real-world outcomes

The result is better conversations with customers, stronger service design, and a clearer path to selling breach containment as a managed service rather than a standalone technology.

This deeper enablement also brings partners into closer alignment with Illumio sales, support, and services teams, creating consistency in how value is delivered end to end.

Introducing a new support certification

As part of the updates, Illumio is also introducing a new formal support certification, complementing existing services delivery certifications.

This reflects the operational reality of managed services. MSPs don’t just deploy segmentation but operate it, maintain it, and evolve it over time.

With this certification, partners can demonstrate end-to-end capability across the full customer lifecycle, from architecture and deployment to ongoing operations and support.

For customers, that means confidence. For partners, it means credibility and the ability to offer higher-value, longer-term services.

Built to scale with Illumio innovation

The Illumio MSP program is designed to scale alongside the platform and ecosystem.

Partners can turn detection into action with Illumio Insights and then deliver breach containment with Illumio Segmentation. Integrations with platforms like Microsoft Sentinel make it easier to embed Illumio into broader security operations workflows.

This is one reason global system integrators and service providers, including Kyndryl, Capgemini, BT, Swisscom, and Bell Cyber, are already part of the Illumio partner ecosystem.

When partners invest in Illumio, they’re aligning with a platform purpose-built for containment in modern, distributed environments.

Built for partners ready to go further

The fastest-growing MSPs aren’t just reselling technology. They’re building managed services that reduce risk, create stickiness, and drive predictable revenue.

Breach containment checks all those boxes.

It’s a board-level concern, front-page news, and a problem customers can’t solve with detection alone. Illumio gives MSPs a way to deliver real outcomes, backed by proven segmentation expertise and a program designed to support long-term growth.

For partners willing to invest in training, certification, and service quality, the updated Illumio MSP program offers a clear path to differentiation in a crowded market and a way to turn breach containment into a scalable, recurring service.

If you’re ready to move beyond software margins and build something more durable, this program was built for you.

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