Salt Security, the API security company, has announced the global expansion of its Salt Security Essential Partner Program, with the company noting that it will be instrumental in ensuring customers around the world can protect the APIs fueling their digital transformations, application modernisations, cloud migrations, and other digital initiatives. The company state that it has always been 100% channel-focused – therefore making this programme more broadly available will expand the network of distributors, channel partners, consultancies, and integrators.
“The Salt commitment to the channel has been clear since its earliest days. The team has been an immensely proactive partner who offers both competitive advantage to our customers and substantial opportunities for our sales team,” said Jeffrey de Heer, EMEA MultiVendor Leader, SoftwareONE, a Salt Security partner. “The Salt Security API Protection Platform is the most advanced and proven API security solution on the market. With the company’s industry-leading mix of technology, training, and programming, its channel program helps us better understand our customers’ key challenges while driving new growth and sales opportunities.”
The timing is ideal to amplify the Salt Security Essential Partner Program given the company recently appointed veteran channel leader, Jon Peppler, as Vice President of Worldwide Channels. Peppler joined from Bitglass (now Forcepoint), bringing decades of experience running worldwide channel programmes for software startups with him. His record of success recently earned him recognition as a 2021 Channel Chief by CRN, only the most recent of several years earning that accolade. Peppler will be responsible for driving the company’s global channel partner strategy and empowering organisations to innovate by securing the APIs at the heart of modern applications. He joins the Salt Security team of international sales leaders, including Anton Granic, VP of Worldwide Sales, and Sunil Dutt, Director of Channel Sales, EMEA and APAC.
“The Salt Security Essential Partner Program is a critical part of our go-to-market strategy, reinforcing our commitment to resolving critical business challenges at global scale in the face of growing API security threats,” Peppler said. “It is an exciting time to join Salt Security and expand this programme, given the leadership position Salt holds in technology, customer penetration, industry recognition, and channel partner recruitment. The flexibility and scale of our program will help our partners and their customers innovate even as malicious attacks on APIs accelerate.”
Another partner, Larry Pfeifer, Founder at Consortium Networks says demand for API security solutions has risen significantly. “The Salt Security Essential Partner Program has enabled us to address this demand head-on with a proven, best-in-class solution,” he said. “Both our sales team and customers enjoy the comprehensive support from the company, coupled with the flexibility, knowledge, and incentives built into the programme that help us drive revenue on an ongoing basis.”
The Salt Security partner strategy focuses on activity alignment and channel partner growth by enabling customers to work with their trusted partners directly to achieve the best support, pricing, and value from the industry’s leading API security platform. The Essential Partner Program supports both Associate and Professional tiers, based on the number of sales and solution architect certifications, pipeline value identified, and joint customer wins. It also includes best practice guidance for partners around rules of engagement, deal registration, technical enablement, and growth accelerators through incentives and marketing investments. Salt will augment the program with additional tiers as it grows. The company also provides specialised support to help partners grow their API security business with healthy margins through the benefit of the company’s market leadership.
The proliferation of APIs to enable digital transformation and IT modernisation has made them a prime attack vector and focus for malicious actors. Given these threats, Salt Security customers rely on resellers to provide them with trusted API security solutions. Salt takes a unique approach in the industry, with its API Context Engine (ACE) Architecture combining cloud-scale big data with the industry’s only patented machine learning (ML) and artificial intelligence (AI) capabilities to secure APIs automatically and continuously. Salt partners can readily show their customers how Salt provides the critical and immediate value of the industry’s leading runtime protection as well as the longer-term value of “shift left” capabilities that identify API vulnerabilities during API development.
“APIs are the arteries fueling enterprise innovation – the critical connectors of the applications and services that support the modern economy. When they’re vulnerable to manipulation or breaches, the businesses that rely on them are susceptible to serious risks,” explained Salt channel lead Peppler. “Extending our Essential Partner Program to the broader industry will help ensure that organizations across the world gain access to our mission-critical API security capabilities directly through our partner network, so they can innovate unhindered by the risks and threats that challenge today’s API economy.”
Anthony Doerga, Founder and Partner, AppyThings, noted: “We value working with vendors like Salt Security who enable our customers to innovate with technology that addresses mission-critical challenges like the threat of API attacks and related abuse. This enhanced channel program not only brings value to our customers, but it is both highly supportive and mutually beneficial for our business and sales teams. The growing threat of API attacks in combination with the industry-best API security capabilities from Salt and its comprehensive channel programme brings value to all parties involved.”
