How will Confluent’s US$200 million global partner investment benefit APAC partners?

According to Sandeep Shirodkar, Regional Head for Confluent’s Partner Innovation Ecosystem, Asia Pacific, Japan and Middle East, Confluent's US$200 million global partner investment is designed to have a significant impact on the APAC region by fostering a more collaborative and a highly skilled partner ecosystem.

Confluent recently announced a US$200 million global partner investment over the next three years. The investment will focus on fuelling the growth and reach of Confluent’s global partner ecosystem. This includes expanding opportunities for Confluent partners to make data streaming a strategic part of their businesses, opening new revenue streams and use cases.

To understand how this investment will be channelled to partners in the Asia Pacific region, CRN Asia speaks to Sandeep Shirodkar, Regional Head for Confluent’s Partner Innovation Ecosystem, Asia Pacific, Japan and Middle East.

How will this investment benefits partners in APAC?

Confluent's US$200 million global partner investment is designed to have a significant impact on the APAC region by fostering a more collaborative and a highly skilled partner ecosystem. A key focus of this investment is to empower partners to co-develop and launch new, revenue-generating solutions and services built on Confluent's data streaming platform. Based on its highly successful MSP and OEM program, this investment will drive increased adoption from partners who can embed our solutions (OEM) and also run them as a managed service provider. This will be achieved through joint go-to-market plans, deeper platform integrations, with dedicated support from Confluent's team of data streaming experts.

For partners in APAC, this translates into tangible benefits such as the ability to tap into new revenue streams, accelerate their customers' time-to-value with pre-built connectors and solutions, and gain a competitive edge by offering expertise in the high-demand area of real-time data and AI. The investment has already seen targeted support for regional system integrators and GSI's in APAC.

Are partner's capabilities in APAC still lagging compared to those from other regions?

While the APAC region is seeing rapid growth, there is an acknowledgment that partner capabilities are not uniform across the board and partner expertise varies based on market utilisation of Kafka. Confluent actively encourages partners to build "centers of excellence" and dedicated service practices around its data streaming platform.

The goal is to elevate partners beyond reselling to becoming full-service providers who can guide customers from initial prospecting and solution design to implementation and ongoing service delivery. This focus on upskilling and enablement is a core component of the new investment, aiming to create a more innovative and revenue focused partner network across the APAC region.

APAC regions have some of the best partners, equivalent if not better than other partners across the globe.

Will Confluent be looking to add more partners in the region?

Confluent is actively seeking to expand its partner ecosystem in the APAC region, with a particular focus on recruiting partners with specific skill sets. We are looking for "full-service capable" partners who can provide end-to-end solutions to customers. Furthermore, there is a strong emphasis on adding more "cloud-specific data space partners" who have deep expertise in working with major cloud providers like AWS, Google Cloud, and Microsoft Azure.

The recent announcement serves as an open invitation to system integrators, ISVs, and managed service providers to join the Confluent ecosystem and capitalize on the growing demand for data streaming technologies in the region. We will not be adding resell-only partners unless it is requested by the client.

Lastly, what's your advice to partners that are looking to be part of the Confluent ecosystem?

For partners looking to join the Confluent ecosystem, the key to success lies in aligning with our focus on AI and real-time data. Prospective partners should invest in building deep technical expertise in data streaming, Apache Kafka, and Apache Flink. It is also crucial to develop capabilities in building and deploying solutions that leverage real-time data for AI and machine learning applications, such as predictive analytics, fraud detection, and generative AI.

As Confluent's strategy is heavily intertwined with the cloud, partners should also have a strong foundation in cloud-native technologies and experience in deploying and managing solutions on major cloud platforms. By developing these capabilities, partners can position themselves as valuable contributors to the Confluent ecosystem and effectively meet the evolving needs of customers in the APAC region.