MILPITAS, Calif. —  March 12th, 2026 — SonicWall today announced significant updates to its SecureFirst Partner Program, introducing new enablement offerings designed to help partners drive predictable growth, expand recurring revenue and deliver stronger cybersecurity outcomes for customers, without adding operational complexity or headcount.

The announcement also marks the introduction of Patrick O’Donnell as SonicWall’s new Chief Revenue Officer (CRO). O’Donnell will lead SonicWall’s global sales, partner, and revenue strategy, with a strong focus on partner success as the company continues to expand beyond firewalls into platform-driven cybersecurity and managed services.

“Our partners are at the center of everything we do at SonicWall,” said Patrick O’Donnell, CRO at SonicWall. “The SecureFirst Partner Program updates are about removing friction and helping partners move faster, attach more services and build profitable, long-term customer relationships. We’re aligning our enablement, incentives and support to ensure partners can scale confidently and win in a market that increasingly values outcomes over products.”

Patrick’s appointment enables Jason Carter to focus fully on his new role as Senior Vice President, Global Channels and Alliances, where he will oversee a unified partner go-to-market organization designed to strengthen alignment, accelerate growth and deliver measurable partner outcomes. Carter was also recently named to the 2026 CRN Channel Chiefs list, recognizing his leadership and commitment to partner excellence.

Partner Outcomes at the Core
As customer expectations evolve, partners are under pressure to deliver continuous protection, measurable results and deliver rapid responses, while also growing recurring revenue and managing costs. The updated SecureFirst Partner Program is designed to meet these demands by focusing on outcomes that matter most to partners:

• Faster, more predictable profitability through subscription-driven revenue, deal protection, and programs that increase service attachment rates.
• Operational scale without added burden, enabled by unified, multi-tenant management and automated billing workflows.
• Accelerated expertise-to-revenue, with role-based, on-demand accreditations that shorten ramp time for sales and technical teams.
• Stronger go-to-market execution, supported by named SonicWall teams providing real-time technical, sales, and strategic guidance across the full sales cycle.

These enhancements support partners as they expand beyond standalone firewall sales to deliver higher-value, recurring security services across SonicWall’s growing portfolio.

Modernizing Partner Specialization and Enablement

The SecureFirst Partner Program updates include a refreshed approach to partner Specializations, now awarded at the partner firm level, allowing organizations to collectively demonstrate expertise across SonicWall solutions. Partners can earn Specializations in areas including Network Security, Security Service Edge, SonicSentry XMDR, Managed Protection Security Suite and Endpoint Security.

To support this shift, SonicWall has introduced role-based accreditations across sales, pre-sales and post-sales roles, delivered through on-demand, self-paced learning paths. These accreditations are designed to reduce dependency on a few senior specialists and help partners build scalable teams faster.

Additional investments include:

• Improved partner onboarding experience with guided checklists and curated training.
• Enhanced SonicWall University platform with embedded AI to help partners quickly find tools and resources.
• Expanded access to the CSE Catalog, enabling partners to instantly book live sessions with SonicWall experts to support active deals.
• Additional customer service benefits.

Leadership Momentum and What’s Next

O’Donnell brings deep experience scaling partner-led growth and will play a key role in advancing SonicWall’s vision for a more integrated, outcome-driven partner ecosystem.

“This is just the beginning,” said O’Donnell. “As we look ahead to 2026, SonicWall will continue investing in partners with deeper insights, stronger programs and actionable intelligence to help them stay ahead of emerging threats and customer needs.”
Updated SecureFirst Partner Program requirements take effect March 1, 2026, with partners having until January 31, 2027, to meet the new requirements. Select accreditations are available today, with additional offerings rolling out through the first half of the year.

Partners will soon be able to track progress, access enablement resources, and explore new benefits through the SonicWall Partner Portal: https://sonicwall.my.site.com/partner/SwLogin

About SonicWall

For more than 30 years, SonicWall has championed a partner-first model that combines purpose-built technology, cloud-delivered security services and real-time threat intelligence to help businesses prevent breaches, reduce risk and stay operational in the face of evolving modern threats. We are committed to deliver the best security outcomes for our customers where others deliver features and functions. Through its unified cybersecurity portfolio and global community of over 17,000 partners, SonicWall enables managed service providers to actively manage, continuously optimize and measurably protect networks, cloud environments, endpoints and applications. The company is redefining cybersecurity around outcomes that matter to business leaders, including breach prevention, compliance achievement, cost efficiency and reduced human error, because protection is not about what a product can do but about what it actually delivers.