Xona expands channel program globally to help partners secure access to critical infrastructure

December 20, 2022 1:45 PM EST

As Xona strives to advance remote access to operational technology without exposing critical infrastructure to more threats, the frictionless user access platform company has expanded its channel program.

It’s a double-edged sword: advancing remote access to operational technology without exposing critical infrastructure to further threats or vulnerabilities.

As a software provider, Xona strives to help partners find a balance. To that end, the company, which has a frictionless user access platform built for critical infrastructure, has expanded its channel program globally.

“There has been this need to expand OT and enable remote operators. The pandemic has had a lot to do with that. There is an aging workforce, the need to do more with less. So there are a lot of things that have been driving this recently to expand remote access capabilities,” said Bill Moore, founder and CEO of Xona.

The Annapolis, Maryland-based company currently reaches some 25 countries through its relationships with companies such as GE and Baker Hughes. The company has now added international channel partners to better empower its partners, expand relationships, and meet growing demand.

Those international channel partners include PAGO Networks in South Korea and Dicofra in Mexico.

“In our journey of expansion and innovation, we are thinking about these new threats. And for us, the Security Operations Center has to evolve towards these. So we tried to find and understand which technologies were the best on the market. And so we arrived with Xona”. said Rodrigo Peñafiel, general director of Dicofra.

Xona also brought on board Roneeta Lal as Head of Channel Sales and Head of Global Channel to help lead the company in expanding its channel program.

Before joining the team, she was Director of Partner Development at Tanium and held channel sales roles at other companies.

“We really look at where we’re going in terms of protecting and providing this frictionless user access platform for operational technology and critical infrastructure. It’s really become kind of a new company, the OT company versus the IT company. We wanted to find someone who had that kind of business experience from a business standpoint. With Roneeta, being at Splunk, and Okta and Tanium, she had that experience,” Moore said.

While Lal helps lead the charge, Xona has also added new features to their partner program to enable them to accelerate sales and drive revenue.

Those enhancements include simplified deal registration, on-demand training for channel partners, enhanced channel marketing programs, and a cloud-based demo platform that makes it easy for partners to showcase Xona’s technology to potential customers.

“We really want to help our partners and we are providing very strong margins in terms of them making a lot of money selling our product. … What really sets us apart is really bringing a lot of capability that you typically see in multi-vendor products and enterprise IT and really collapsing that into a very simple platform,” Moore said.