It is just over a year since SailPoint introduced its managed service provider (MSP) programme and the security vendor is now looking to expand its efforts for that channel base even further.
In February 2024, the vendor cut the ribbon on an MSP programme that was designed to encourage more partners to get comfortable with selling its Identity Security Cloud offering.
The programme started with a number of select partners given the opportunity to sell the product as SailPoint hoped that a talented MSP would appeal to skills-strapped customers struggling to cope with their increasingly complex security estate.
Just over a year on and the vendor has announced an expansion to its MSP programme that widens the customer base the channel can sell into.
The latest incarnation aims to encourage MSPs to take the identity offering to customers that are at the start of their identity protection journey, with entry-level use cases, with the expectation they can then be guided into more complex deployments by their channel partners.
SailPoint has an established enterprise customer base, but through this move it will enable its MSP partners to get a larger slice of action in the mid-market and below.
“Expanding our offerings through our partners allows us to make our identity security solutions accessible to even more businesses, including smaller enterprises,” said Dave Schwartz, senior vice-president of global partners at SailPoint.
“While some providers opt to offer basic functionality without including a path to long-term success, we believe this is a mistake. SailPoint’s MSP partners can provide MSP customers with the same foundational identity security capabilities that it offers other customers while also setting them up to grow the maturity of their identity programme over time,” he added.
Schwartz insisted that making identity available to more SMEs had not been achieved at the expense of functionality.
“We’re not offering a stripped-down identity security model. Powered by the same SailPoint Atlas platform, we provide a unified identity security solution for an easy and accessible on-ramp to long-term identity security success, wrapped in the offerings our MSP partners will build on SailPoint. This will include consultation and management of their deployment, allowing the customer to focus on what’s important to them: running their business,” he said.
SailPoint expects this wider customer base and the latest enhancements will both be appreciated by MSPs that have been onboard since last year and appeal to fresh partners that identify the opportunity.
The vendor shared views from some of its partners that recognise the shifting needs of the customer base and the acknowledgement by smaller firms of the need for identity protection.
“Identity security is a universal challenge,” said Ron Mechling, chief sales officer at Simeio. “With so many identities – and so many threats – it’s something every modern business needs. Traditionally, only large enterprise customers have had the resources for the most advanced identity security solutions, but SailPoint is turning that paradigm on its head by enabling MSP partners like Simeio to make SailPoint Identity Security Cloud and other identity solutions available to smaller enterprises.”
The recent move by SailPoint to complete an initial public offering (IPO) was seen by many across the vendor’s channel as evidence of the strength of identity security technology.