Zero Networks and partners taking on micro-segmentation myths

Zero Networks is working with partners to educate customers around the benefits of microsegmentation and to challenge the myths of complexity and expense that are still connected with the technology.

With misconceptions around cost and the burden of managing the process holding back customers, particularly small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), from considering the technology, there is a role for the vendor’s partners to bust established myths.

Charlotte Pickering, EMEA channel director at Zero Networks, said partners need to talk to customers who have not adopted the technology as well as those who believe they are already segmented when they had not done it at a micro level.

“There are a lot of misconceptions around microsegmentation – and, [speaking] to customers on a regular basis, they believe they are segmented,” she said.

“Most organisations think of segmentation by department – it could even be by a floor in a building, typically it’s leveraging, so you’ve got your firewalls as your perimeter piece, and then pockets of firewalls internally, maybe VLANs. Segmentation is not a new concept. How microsegmentation was made available historically was very expensive and required a huge number of manual interventions on the rules and policies creation.”

Pickering said that the company was coming with a solution that was not only attractive to a wide range of customers but offered the simplicity many who previously disliked microsegmentation were looking for.

“It is literally controlling that lateral movement, that east-west traffic by asset and by person,” she added. “The opportunity in the market is extraordinary, and this is part of the reason that we’re so relevant.”

The vendor works with Exclusive Networks in the UK and has been building its partner base. It understands the role it plays in educating not only the customer base but the channel as well.

“We have the ability to work with the large VARs, the MSPs, but also those consultative white-glove type partners who really want to take a customer through that journey,” said Pickering. “I look at the different markets across Europe, and each partner that we’ve spoken to understands the importance of micro expectation. We not only have to educate the end user landscape, but the resellers as well. We very much have a channel-first approach, two-tier all through sole distribution of Exclusive.”

Pickering said that the security market was crowded from a vendor perspective, with UK partners able to choose from more than 3,500 potential firms, increasing the importance of ensuring the support was solid and the offering would generate revenues for those signed up to work with zero trust.

Pickering added that most partners were looking to consolidate the number of vendors they worked with and that there was a need to recognise the pressures they were under: “How do you make sure that the message is right, that it’s relevant? We’ve got a strong conversation in delivery aspect. First thing we can tick off is our channel model, because it’s simple and we’re easy to do business with. That’s probably one of the biggest concerns. We constantly think about what a reseller needs, what a reseller wants and how we align with that.”