SonicWall Announces Channel Partner Award Winners at EMEA PEAK16

Last week, SonicWall hosted more than 230 enthusiastic partners at our EMEA PEAK16 event and the information exchange was a valuable one for all of us. The city of Valetta in Malta, with its ancient stone walls and fortresses which have provided defense against attacks throughout history, proved an appropriate location for a security conference. The feedback we received from partners reaffirmed that as threats continue to evolve, customers need to constantly stay at least one step ahead of them. We heard the clear need to allow IT to move away from being an obstacle to the business to becoming an enabler, with technologies that protect from threats, but still provide easy access for all workers, especially those who are mobile or remote.

This week's EMEA PEAK16 event reinforced for us that it's more important than ever to provide a security portfolio that helps our partners reinforce their roles as trusted advisors. Partners took advantage of business and technical sessions designed to give them insight to the cyber threat landscape and how the Security portfolio drives real solutions to today's threats.

EMEA PEAK16 wrapped with the recognition of those partners who exemplify commitment to the SonicWall portfolio and achieved substantial sales growth over the last year. The awards highlighted partner excellence Distribution, Channel Partners, New Partners and the coveted Project of the Year. Congratulations to the following winners:

• 2015 SonicWall EMEA Best Distributor -Exertis
• 2015 SonicWall EMEA Best Performing Partner -NetThreat
• 2015 SonicWall EMEA Best New Comer -Ineo IT Solutions
• 2015 SonicWall EMEA Special Jury Award -Data-Sec
• 2015 SonicWall EMEA Project of the Year - Nalta Consultancy

EMEA PEAK16 was a great reminder of the commitment to mutual success we share with our Security partners, and the importance of our very important mission to protect our mutual customers from today's ever evolving threats. Events like EMEA PEAK16 'with the opportunity for networking, along with educational sessions and new product information' are key to our partner-dependent go-to-market strategy. I think the words of our partners sum it up best:

"For me it was one of the best EMEA PEAK´s of the past years - great news, networking, direct contact in order to give feedback and get hot information directly from product-management, engineering, executives and had a lot of FUN! "Work hard - Party hard" and Business is made by people "“ that is one of the secrets to success!" said Nicolai Landzettel, CEO, Data-Sec UG

All of the sessions were interactive where we received strong, positive feedback on the progress of our portfolio and programs and validated the investments we are making to improve partner profitability, expand our sales and technical enablement offerings and build out our partner tools and infrastructure. Each of these elements are being optimized to better align with customer needs and partner engagement models. At EMEA PEAK16, we announced:

• Enhancements to our Deal Registration program to make it more inclusive of SMB opportunities to reward partners who originate new customers and opportunities
• Our partner Reward for Value framework which provides incremental discounts now available to partners with technical capabilities who deliver a proof of concept to their customers
• New strategies for sustained partner sales and technical enablement including expanded curriculum and delivery options
• A new sales accreditation program recently rolled out to the Security sales teams is now available to all Security Solutions Partners in July 2016. Designed to help continue driving the momentum behind the 30% increase in SonicWall certified Network Security partners over the last year, the program covers the full SonicWall portfolio and includes online learning, tools, training and accreditation.

We look forward to a continued strong year with our EMEA partners as we drive further advancements and enhancements in our portfolio and products and fulfill our mission to protect our mutual customers.