100 percent of ESET's India business will continue through partners: APAC President Parvinder Walia

The cybersecurity vendor says its new India entity will strengthen partner engagement rather than build a direct-sales model, as enterprise customers shift from standalone security products towards managed detection, SOC services and solution-led cybersecurity.

Despite establishing its own legal entity in India, ESET says it has no plans to move away from its channel-first strategy, with APAC President Parvinder Walia telling CRN India that “100 percent of the company's India business” will continue to be delivered through the partner ecosystem as enterprise cybersecurity spending shifts towards managed security services and outcome-led engagements.

The commitment comes as the cybersecurity vendor expands its local presence to address rising enterprise demand, growing regulatory requirements and a changing threat landscape that is pushing organisations beyond traditional endpoint security towards managed security services.

“One hundred percent of ESET's business in India will continue to be delivered through the partner ecosystem," Walia said.

"We are a channel-first organisation. Distributors and resellers serve customers directly and understand their pain points and business requirements. As the vendor, we provide the technology and technical expertise. The commercial relationship, sales and business engagement remain with the partner, while we deliver the technical capabilities and services through the partner."

The statement directly addresses a question partners raise whenever global cybersecurity vendors establish local operations in India, whether a direct presence eventually translates into direct customer engagement. Walia said ESET's India strategy is intended to strengthen partner execution rather than compete with it.

Local entity built to strengthen partner engagement

India has been one of ESET's fastest-growing markets for several years, with the company previously serving customers through distributors and reseller partners. According to Walia, evolving cyber threats, rising customer expectations and growing compliance requirements made a stronger local presence necessary.

"We have moved from being product-centric to solution-centric, and we wanted to get closer to our customers," he said.

ESET has established a local team of around 10 employees across sales and customer support, with their primary responsibility focused on enabling partners rather than building a direct customer organisation.

"Establishing a local entity is also a sign of trust. It tells customers that we are here to understand their business better and support them locally."

The local presence also enables ESET to address government opportunities and meet regulatory requirements that require companies to operate through a local entity, while continuing to execute its go-to-market strategy through partners.

Earlier this year, ESET announced a €40 million investment in AI research and development focused on cybersecurity-specific AI models, an AI security stack and a new AI security operations platform. Walia said India will be a key beneficiary of those global investments

While the local entity strengthens ESET's execution model, Walia believes the bigger transformation is taking place in customer buying behaviour.

"It's definitely changing, and we're seeing that globally," Walia said. "Among medium and large enterprises, as well as government organisations, we clearly see a shift towards a solution-centric approach rather than buying individual products or features."

That shift is driving greater demand for managed security services.

ESET recently introduced its Managed Detection and Response (MDR) offering, combining the company's researchers, security monitoring specialists, threat analysts and threat intelligence capabilities to manage cybersecurity operations on behalf of customers through its partner ecosystem.

According to Walia, the model is gaining traction among medium-sized businesses and large enterprises as organisations struggle to build specialised cybersecurity teams internally.

For smaller businesses, he expects managed service providers (MSPs) to play a much larger role by delivering enterprise-grade security capabilities without requiring customers to invest in dedicated in-house expertise.

Partners need to evolve beyond licence fulfilment

As customers consume cybersecurity as an ongoing managed service, Walia believes partners must expand beyond traditional product fulfilment into advisory services, managed security and long-term customer engagement.

"We educate our partners continuously," he said. "Distributors who have not evolved with the market have found it difficult to survive."

Rather than limiting engagement to product training, ESET conducts regular partner sessions covering emerging cyber threats, industry trends and evolving customer requirements.

"We don't just talk about our products and features. We also cover the broader cybersecurity landscape, emerging threats and what's happening across the industry."

The company also works closely with IT professionals and SMB customers to understand changing security priorities and uses those insights to shape partner enablement programmes.

Walia said ESET is also ready to support partners that want to expand into managed services or establish their own SOC capabilities.

"Our partners already serve both the SMB and enterprise segments. If any of them want to diversify into managed services or build their own SOC capabilities, we are ready to collaborate and support them in whatever way we can."

According to him, India is expected to play an important role in ESET's long-term services strategy because of its mature services ecosystem and talent base.

BFSI, healthcare and manufacturing lead the opportunity

As ESET expands its enterprise business in India, Walia identified BFSI, healthcare and manufacturing as the company's priority sectors.

"BFSI is the largest opportunity, followed by healthcare and manufacturing," he said.

Before technical capabilities, however, ESET looks for partners whose long-term business objectives align with its own.

"Before skills, the most important factor is alignment. We want to work with partners whose goals align with ours."

Walia said the company remains focused on building long-term relationships with partners committed to delivering cybersecurity services and expanding into the enterprise market.

"Our role is to help partners understand how the security ecosystem is evolving," he said. "We provide the technology and technical expertise, while our partners continue to own the customer relationship."

As enterprise demand moves beyond endpoint protection towards MDR, SOC services and continuous security operations, Walia believes the next phase of channel growth will belong to partners that evolve alongside their customers.