Palo Alto Networks honours New Zealand partners' success

Palo Alto Networks has announced the winners of its 2024 Partner of the Year Awards, recognising contributions from its partners in New Zealand.

Vasely Sapunov, Head of Channel and Commercial Business at Palo Alto Networks, New Zealand, stated, "We are honoured to recognise our incredible partner community, whose dedication has enabled us to deliver industry-leading security solutions to organisations of all sizes across New Zealand. At Palo Alto Networks, our partners are integral to our success. Through close collaboration, we are able to reach more organisations and advance cyber resilience and capabilities as we safeguard our customers' businesses."

This year's awards celebrated a range of partners from systems integrators to managed service providers, all distinguished by their innovation and commitment to protecting customers from cyber threats while facilitating digital transformation. Sapunov added, "This year's winners have shown exceptional innovation and agility, and represent a broad range of partner excellence from across the region - including systems integrators, distributors, telcos, managed service providers, and cloud providers. Each of these partners shares a steadfast commitment to protecting our customers from evolving cyber threats while helping to accelerate digital transformation initiatives, and we're proud of their shared growth and success. Congratulations to our winners, and thank you to all our Palo Alto Networks partners for your unwavering commitment to excellence."

Palo Alto Networks honoured eight partners at the event, with awards presented in various categories to acknowledge their achievements. The winners were: Technical Excellence Award went to Datacom New Zealand, Growth Partner of the Year was awarded to Lexel Systems, Rising Star was named as Spark New Zealand, LinearStack took home MSSP of the Year, and PwC New Zealand was awarded the Cortex Partner of the Year. SASE Partner of the Year was given to One New Zealand, in partnership with DEFEND, while Datacom New Zealand also secured the Deal of the Year, and Spark New Zealand received the Sales Excellence Award.

The awards dinner, held in Auckland, was supported by distribution partners, with Ingram Micro as gold sponsor. The Technology Summit 2024 was backed by Westcon as a platinum sponsor, demonstrating the partners' roles in supporting the event.

The Tech Summit and partner awards were preceded by Innovate 2024, part of Palo Alto Networks' global roadshow. This event gathered cybersecurity leaders to explore and understand the impact of technologies such as Zero Trust, Artificial Intelligence, and Machine Learning on the industry.

Ingram Micro commented on the awards, stating, "The Palo Alto Networks Partner Awards exemplify the innovation, commitment, and ingenuity of our partner community, and Ingram Micro is delighted to have celebrated these exceptional achievements as gold sponsor of the Awards. Supporting this celebration of excellence underscores our ongoing commitment to empowering our partners and delivering transformative technology solutions."

Westcon-Comstor also expressed pride in sponsoring the summit, with their spokesperson stating, "Westcon-Comstor are proud to have sponsored the 2024 Palo Alto Networks New Zealand Technology Summit, an event that highlights industry leading security solutions. This, in conjunction with the Partner of the Year Awards, provides a unique platform to celebrate innovation and collaboration within the partner community. Our decade-long partnership with Palo Alto Networks spans 23 countries across EMEA and Asia Pacific, and we are honoured to continue supporting the growth and success of the cybersecurity industry globally."