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BT Security shakes up roster of vendors after 'largest ever' partner review
Fri, 28th Aug 2020
FYI, this story is more than a year old

BT Security has today announced the key partners it will work with in the future, following the company's largest-ever appraisal of its security suppliers, and a review of the security vendor ecosystem.

BT says the decision to review their security partner base was driven by the recognition that many customers find it difficult to navigate today's complex security landscape, as well as customers' desire to have a ‘leaner set of partners'.

“Our new security partner ecosystem showcases the benefits of BT Security as a managed security services provider (MSSP),” says BT Security managing director Kevin Brown.

“We're able to use our deep experience and insight of the security ecosystem to help our customers navigate what can be an incredibly confusing market.

“We're also ensuring that BT Security customers will benefit from working with the best suppliers from across the security industry.

As its new ‘critical partners', BT chose McAfee, Palo Alto Networks and Fortinet.

BT says these companies will each provide services which will be further incorporated into the company's global portfolio.

“We're proud to partner with BT to fight against cybercrime and accelerate new business environments for our customers as they look for more solution integrations, deeper engagement and faster modernisation efforts,” says McAfee executive vice president of global sales and marketing Lynn Doherty.

“Together through our strategic service provider partners, like BT, McAfee is able to deliver world class security services that enable organisations to evolve their defences into areas like secure access service edge (SASE) and extended detection and response (XDR).

Palo Alto Networks vice president of global service provider business Alex Zinin says: “We've been working closely with BT Security for several years to bring innovative cybersecurity solutions to our joint customers.

“We are honoured to be selected as one of their critical partners to continue this close collaboration, in recognition of the breadth of our security capabilities across multiple market segments.

“This comes at a time when it's never been more essential for communications and security to be closely aligned to help all organisations with staff working remotely,” says Zinin.

“We look forward to working together as we strive to make each day safer and more secure than the one before.”
 
BT chose Microsoft, IBM and Cisco as ‘strategic partners', and a further nine ‘ecosystem partners' who will be incorporated into its global portfolio of solutions for customers due to their complementary technology capabilities. These partners are Skybox, Forescout, Zscaler, Check Point, CrowdStrike, Okta, Qualys, Netscout and F5.