Trend Micro, a global cloud security leader, today announced an aggressive new partner programme.

The programme focuses on rewarding proactivity, driving new business and customer retention, delivering greater rewards and reviewing partners who are underperforming, a statement said.

Despite tough economic times, industry analysts including Gartner, IDC and Forrester recognise that the internet security sector has posted year-on-year growth, and that the growth is forecast to continue.

Further in-depth research by Trend Micro, conducted with its extensive partner network and across the wider channel, has clearly shown that this sector represents a significant revenue opportunity for partners selling both traditional and cloud computing security solutions, it said.

Yet the research has also shown that the rapid pace of change in this industry is exposing weakness across some parts of the channel. Many partners are relying too heavily on easy repeat business, rather than working proactively to hunt and farm opportunities within existing and new customers, said the company.

“We are excited by Trend Micro’s new partner program. It gives us the freedom to operate with intent and the crucial vendor support from Trend, is among the best in the industry. The company has robust cloud offerings and the new initiatives from them will help us get Trend products and solutions out to a wider audience,” commented Saurabh Vats - BDM at Imtac Oman.

The re-launch of the Partner Programme comes at a time when Trend Micro is achieving its highest growth against competition in the Internet Security sector and has been rated number one leader in the Virtualization Security market, according to Technavio’s Global Virtualization Security Management Solutions Citation.

“Our channel eco-system play a crucial role in making our products and solutions widely available and our new channel initiatives are designed to empower and make them profitable,” commented Sushma Kajaria, Channel Development Manager, Trend Micro, MMEA.

“If our partners work with us to develop profitable, sustainable business, we will reward it with training, certification, specialisation, business planning, and marketing tools, as well as very competitive margins. We give our partners the only Programme in the industry that goes beyond traditional anti-virus business and plugs them straight into the rapidly expanding cloud security and virtualization markets. Underperformance is no longer an option,” added Kajaria. – TradeArabia News Service