Blue Coat intros Cloud Partner programme

Blue Coat Systems, a provider of Web security and WAN optimisation solutions, has launched a new Cloud Partner Programme aimed at providing a quick and easy path for partners to sell the Blue Coat Cloud Service.
The Blue Coat Cloud Service is an Internet-delivered service that leverages proven Blue Coat Web security technology and the collaborative WebPulse community to provide cost-effective Web protection to all users, all the time, anywhere.
The Cloud Partner programme includes two new designations: Cloud-Ready and Managed Security Service Provider. The Cloud-Ready designation provides existing Blue Coat partners with the sales and technology training they need to quickly begin selling the new service. The Managed Security Service Provider designation is an advanced designation offering partners the option to white label the Blue Coat Cloud Service and build additional offerings around it. For end-users, the new designations offer an easy way to identify partners that can help them deploy or manage the new Blue Coat Cloud Service.
“This new service gives us a great opportunity to introduce a broad new group of organisations to the same enterprise-class Web security technology that we have been selling for years,” says Neil Campbell, GM, global security at Dimension Data.  “With the new partner programme tailored specifically to emphasise the role of the reseller as a trusted advisor for their customers, Blue Coat is demonstrating its commitment to its partners.”
Designed to enable partners to successfully sell the Blue Coat Cloud Service, the new Cloud Partner Programme offers partners a series of benefits to help them build stronger relationships with their end users and expand their business, including: expanded solutions portfolio, new revenue opportunities, new service opportunities and customer visibility. “It was important for us to put our channel partners at the forefront of this service, so we architected the Blue Coat Cloud Service from the ground up to be a channel-delivered solution,” says Jim Harold, VP of worldwide channel sales at Blue Coat Systems.  “The new Cloud Partner Programme provides partners with a quick and easy path to successfully sell into the rapidly growing security software-as-a-service (SSaaS) market.”