Splunk focused on protecting partners as they integrate into Cisco 360

“If a partner has invested in the badges and the certifications under Splunk Partnerverse today, and is an elite partner, whey they move into Cisco 360, they will be a Cisco preferred partner under the Splunk architecture,” says Gretchen O’Hara, Vice President of Worldwide Channels and Alliances at Splunk.

As Splunk looks to complete its integration into Cisco following the acquisition, the integration also now moves towards Splunk’s partner community. With Cisco also revamping its partner program, the scenario for Splunk’s partners looks rather promising, according to Gretchen O’Hara, Vice President of Worldwide Channels and Alliances at Splunk.

With Cisco currently focused on enabling its existing partners on Cisco 360, the revamped partner program, which is due to launch next year, O’Hara believes its also the perfect opportunity for Splunk’s partners to make the most of the situation and get onboard as well.

In an interview with CRN Asia during Cisco Live, O’Hara shared how Splunk is ensuing partners that the investments they have made over the years with Splunk will remain valuable, especially in onboarding with the Cisco 360 program.

How has your role and also your relationship with Splunk’s partners evolved since the acquisition?

One of the biggest things that I am focused on is building a very thoughtful path for the Splunk partners that have invested years in the training and skilling to be able to build digital resilience and ensure that that investment has been protected as they move into Cisco.

In addition to that, there's an enormous amount of Cisco partners that are already Splunk partners. So, how do we make the experience better for them so that they have a 1 plus 1 equals 3 experience of being able to sell with Cisco and Splunk together and to have a unified experience with the customer?

And so, I've evolved into driving basically the growth of the Splunk ecosystem and making sure that we have the right partner for the right opportunity while building the bridges with Rodney Clark, Cisco’s Channel Chief to make sure that when we come under the Cisco 360 umbrella, it is a seamless transition and that the investments partners made stay consistent and there's growth opportunity and predictable profitability for all of our partners if you build on Splunk.

What makes Cisco 360 interesting is that it’s also news for Cisco partners as well and it's also their year of transition.

How important is it to be aligned with Cisco as Cisco 360 goes live next year?

It's critical to be aligned, first and foremost as it can be really confusing for partners, especially with Cisco's history of three decades of long, detailed partnerships. If we're asking them to do unnatural acts in some way to work with Splunk, we want to make that’s as easy as possible, remove as much friction so that they can have the highest amount of profitability when they build a Splunk practice.

At the same time, the Splunk architecture is deeply software and cloud-based ingrained in how we go to market. And so, we also want to make sure that we don't dilute the skills and capabilities of the Splunk investment when we bring those together.

So, we need great seamless alignment, but we also need to make sure that Splunk partners and the investments they've made are protected so that we continue to see exponential growth, especially in areas like APAC where we see great big bets across the region.

Our goal has been to essentially take all of the best of Splunk’s Partnerverse and bring that as our own architecture under Cisco 360. So, if a partner invests in the badges and the certifications under Partnerverse today, and is an elite partner, when they move into Cisco 360, they’ll be a Cisco preferred partner under the Splunk architecture. We don't want to create unnecessary disruption that could cause challenges with our partners and also just disruption at our customers.

We need to make sure this is seamless. So, we need to be absolutely aligned and then recognize the value and uniqueness of what the Splunk ecosystem brings.

How different is the approach between Cisco and Splunk in their relationship with their partners?

I would say there is about a 77% overlap of Cisco and Splunk partners today. Meaning, 77% of partners already carry both products.

Splunk already has a pretty deep understanding of Cisco. From that perspective, I think there's already great understanding and domain expertise. The difference is where Splunk partners will now be focused on hybrid, multi-cloud environments, and more specifically around lifecycle adoption and customer success, essentially when they're selling a cloud-based service.

Selling at the cash register isn't valuable at Splunk. We need Splunk partners to be in those customers, helping them land and expand and adapt so that they see real value from the investment. In the past, on the hardware side of Cisco, you're not necessarily needed for some of those things.

But in this new world of powered by AI, everyone needs to have the skills, and everyone needs to be able to not just sell something into the account but actually have the expertise to deploy and expand and make sure that the adoption is happening across the enterprise today.

So, that's where I think Splunk has a lot of expertise and history, especially in co-selling, deal registration, influenced revenue and recognizing partner value, whether they transact or not. Bringing that into where Cisco 360 is going is deep value for the customer and recognizing partners for the deep specialization or the architecture that they're in.

How are partners, in your conversations with them, reacting to this change that's coming?

I think one of the biggest guiding principles with Splunk partners is we said at the very beginning that we are going to protect the investments that you make in Splunk, because it will take some time to move over into Cisco 360.

We don’t want partners to stall and not continue to scale in what was needed while waiting for something to come for full integration. And so, priority one was that when Cisco 360 comes out, essentially Splunk will be its own architecture under the Cisco 360 umbrella. So, as a Splunk partner, not only will they get all the goodness of everything, but if they were an elite partner at Splunk, they would be a Cisco preferred partner under Cisco 360.

Now they have the benefit of cross-selling across those architectures and an entire set of additional incentives that not only opens the door for new opportunities for growth but increase profitability from the incentives that they're going to see across Cisco 360. So, the partners want to make sure that the value they're bringing into that engagement exists and stays. They don't want that to go away.

At the same time, we have Cisco partners wanting to build their Splunk business. And so, what we've been trying to do is marry the two, where if there's a Cisco partner that isn't already Splunk, they need to invest in those skills. And oftentimes, Cisco partners are so excited; they're actually buying Splunk partners to go faster into the market.

So, there is that sort of excitement on the Cisco side. And on the Splunk side, they're feeling good that they can just be a Splunk partner under Cisco if they choose to. They don't have to necessarily get certified in other areas if they don't want to. But the growth potential now is there. And we're encouraging all partners to grow beyond just Splunk.

In terms of the solutions, is Splunk still developing more solutions, or is it more focused now to co-develop with Cisco going forward?

I think what we're seeing under Jeetu Patel, Cisco’s President and Chief Product Officer, is that as we continue to build solutions, we're going to naturally build integrated connections together. AI Defense is a great example of one that has a natural fit within Splunk.

We're going to continue to enhance enterprise security and unified solutions. We have full stack observability now and bring AI into our on-prem app observability. But at the same time, there will be a goal of co-innovation together with Cisco and that's the roadmap that we'll be working on.

The thing that customers will continue to see is that Splunk will be this single pane of glass and will have that end-to-end resilient, secure, and observability on everything from the network to the application to the infrastructure side, which will all be powered through AI while keeping humans in the loop.

While there is a lot of innovation on the speed and efficiency of how and what agentic AI can do in the space of observability and security, we also want to make sure that it's not at a place where we're making bad decisions. It's helping inform to take actionable insights and smarter decision-making and not just reducing the cost of the overhead but being smart with the resources that you have.

Lastly, what is your advice to Splunk partners who are still a bit concerned and not really sure what to expect?

My advice is to build your Splunk practice as it will be a core component of the future of Cisco. If you're already a Splunk partner, your investment will be preserved, and you have a huge opportunity for growth as we bring more of the connected Cisco portfolio together for our Splunk partners.

The hesitancy on both sides of the partner is saying, “maybe I should wait and see, or what should I actually do next?” Don't wait. Go now, because what you're going to be able to do is get in front of those customers and win that market early.

And right now, from my perspective, it's the partners that are getting out in front and can win that opportunity early that are going to be the leaders in the future of this AI powered world. So, get ready, get started, and don't wait.

Our goal will be by the time that we fully integrate, we will have every single Splunk partner be a Cisco partner.