Proofpoint: ‘We don’t grow against our partners, we grow with them’

According to Nelson Soon, VP Channel Sales, APJ at Proofpoint, the success of partners in the region is determined by the role they play in the ecosystem.

Apart from the recently announced Varonis acquisition and new solutions unveiled at its Protect summit in the US, the human and agent cybersecurity company has also made huge investments in the Asia Pacific region.

In early September, Proofpoint announced new local data center infrastructure and solution capabilities to enhance data security in the age of AI across Singapore, India and Japan. The vendor also looks to support compliance efforts by mapping data risk to controls aligned with local regulations, including Singapore's PDPA, India's DPDP Act, Japan's APPI and Australia's Privacy Act.

For Nelson Soon, VP Channel Sales APJ at Proofpoint, given the geographical span of the Asia Pacific region, partners play a very important role in not just supporting customers in the region but also helping the company grow the market for them or with them.

According to Soon, the success of partners in the region is determined by the role they play in the ecosystem. He explained that this is one of the reasons why a lot of the partner awards are designed around who's the best at bringing success in a set market.

“For Proofpoint, partner success is measured by those finding deals for us and even possibly even constructing and managing the deals end to end for us. We also believe that the more technically capable a partner is with our solution, the better it is for them to represent our solution and therefore we will also have a technical category to recognize partners who are very technically astute with our solution offering,” he said.

This includes capabilities of running proof of concepts even without Proofpoint’s support. At the same time, partners that are very technically competent will be recognized by their investment and their aptitude.

“These are all aligned to what we want the partners to do,” Soon added.

Proofpoint will be recognizing its successful partners in the region at several Proofpoint Connect Summits. Apart from that, the cybersecurity vendor will also be sharing some of its latest innovations announced at the Proofpoint Protect 26 Summit in November in Singapore.

MSP offerings

In May this year, Proofpoint unveiled the Proofpoint MSP Platform. The dedicated business unit serving managed service providers (MSPs) and small and mid-sized businesses (SMBs) is currently available in North America, following the acquisition of Hornetsecurity in December 2025.

Whie the MSP platform is not yet available in the APAC region, Soon shared that there is strong demand for MSP offerings here. However, he also stated that Proofpoint will be evaluating how they can best bring the offering to the region with the right strategy and partners.

“We have tried it out in the US and I'm happy to share that we are getting success in the US. So, we are exploring the possibility of bringing the product and replicating that in Asia in the near future. From a product standpoint, we already have a ready-made product in our portfolio. But we are very conscious of how it fits the market. We will only bring a product into the market where we are very confident that the experience that the customer and partner have is at the same quality of our other products,” he said.

Soon also pointed out that Proofpoint is very careful to make sure that it will not bring something into market if the experience is inferior because the vendor cares about customer experience and partner experience a lot.

“Bringing the best product is just one piece of the puzzle. If you are unable to support it, then you will leave a sour taste in everybody's mouth. So, we want to make sure that when we hit the market, it's very well received and more importantly well supported,” Soon added.

Engaging with partners

Soon has a simple philosophy when it comes to engaging with partners in the region.

“Product is one aspect of what partners look at but the trust when the product is deployed so that they are not left alone is equally if not more important,” he said.

Soon believes that some customers might not even pick the best product if they know support can overcome challenges.

“For us, we know we bring the best product in the region. The more we are in the region, when they decide to go, they know we have their backs. Similarly, for the partner ecosystem where partners also want to know that we are committed in this region,” he said.

Soon also highlighted that there are now more partners investing with the vendor, especially after the recent announcements made in the region.

“We are building a center of excellence in India and hopefully other parts of APJ as well. Partners will see more investment and more Proofpoint employees based in region,” Soon added.

“We will continue to have commitment that our go to market philosophy won't change. We are very clear that we are a high-growing business. More importantly, we don't grow against our partners, but we grow with our partners,” he concluded.