Cato Networks, a provider of Secure Access Service Edge (SASE) platform, announced the appointment of Anthony D’Angelo to serve as vice president of global channel sales and business development. The company has also launched its Cato Distinguished Support Providers (CDSP), which it claims as the first channel accreditation for SASE technical support.
The two moves build on Cato’s global channel investments that saw the recent appointment of Nuvias as its first pan-European distributor, new distributorships in Hong Kong and Macau, and further expansion and support of the DACH and Nordic regions. Channel sales accounted for nearly 90% of business in 2020.
“We’re excited to welcome Anthony to the Cato team,” says Alon Alter, the Chief Revenue Officer of Cato Networks. “Gartner’s SASE framework has become the accepted way forward for enterprise networking and security, and channel partners can benefit from this major trend. Cato’s SASE platform empowers partners to get to market quickly with new reoccurring revenue streams by delivering enterprise networking, security, and, now, support services.”
Anthony will serve as vice president of global channel sales and business development at Cato, where he will drive Cato’s channel ecosystem globally. He’ll be responsible for ensuring the continued success of Cato’s master agents, VARs, and distributors while developing partnerships with leading system integrators and MSPs.
Anthony brings more than 20 years of experience in global channel sales, advancing industry-recognized partner programs for fast-growth companies in both the networking and security space. Before joining Cato Networks, Anthony served as the Director of Global SD-WAN Partner Sales at Cisco Systems after having been Vice President of Worldwide Channel Sales and Distribution at Viptela prior to the acquisition by Cisco. He has held executive sales positions at Westcon, Net Optics, HP, TippingPoint, and RSA.
“I’m very excited to be joining Cato,” he says. “Enterprise adoption of SASE will accelerate quickly, and the market opportunity is tremendous for partners who lead the way. With Cato, channel partners have the unique opportunity to address the customer’s WAN edge, security, cloud, and mobility needs — with one solution – and all the while taking a larger share of the $60B managed network services market.”
According to the company, the CDSP accreditation will identify those distinguished partners with the technical resources to support Cato customers independently. CDSP-Certified partners will be able to deliver Cato SASE tier-1 support; CDSP-Expert partners will be able to deliver tier-1 and tier-2 support. There is no cost to become a CDSP; training is free of charge. However, only select partners meeting specific training and support requirements will be accredited in each region.
For partners, it’s a risk-free opportunity to get ahead of the competition. With CDSP, partners will be able to deliver revenue-generating support services that improve customer satisfaction and increase customer retention. They will differentiate themselves as SASE and Cato experts, enhancing their competitive advantage and market positioning. CDSPs benefit from priority in lead/deal sharing, access to Cato’s support forum, and early availability of new features and versions.
Alter mentioned that partners have long enjoyed a unique value proposition with Cato, enabling them to introduce new revenue streams – instantly. If they specialized in security, partners can leverage Cato to deliver SD-WAN and global networking services. Alternatively, if partners specialized in networking with Cato they can now quickly deliver security services.
It’s the power of convergence and one that CDSP accreditation exploits. Delivering technical support services is made more efficient by convergence. Partners can use a single-pane-of-glass to configure, monitor, and manage their customers’ infrastructure. As Alter believes, troubleshooting problems happens faster as deeper insight becomes possible when all events are stored into data warehouse.