Splunk Readies Program Tracks For OEM And Systems Integrator Partners

Machine data analytics software developer Splunk is expanding its channel reach, unveiling plans to add tracks in the company's Partner+ channel program for OEM and systems integrator partners in 2019.

The company, which is holding its .conf18 customer conference in Orlando this week, just went live in August with a channel program for distributors, creating a global framework that offers distributors pay-for-performance incentives and rebates.

This week's channel announcements also included upgrades to the partner certification program and an expanded global rebate offering that rewards partners for sales engineering training and recruiting new customers.

[Related: Splunk To Acquire VictorOps, Provider Of DevOps Incident Management Tools]

"Splunk is really focused on developing an expansive partner ecosystem," said Brooke Cunningham, area vice president, global partner programs, marketing and operations, in an interview with CRN prior to .conf18. "Everything we're doing from a product perspective, we're thinking about how partners can add value on top of Splunk."

Splunk has been growing its Partner+ channel program in recent years, which now covers more than 1,600 VARs, global systems integrators, OEMs, distributors, MSPs and technology alliance partners. Cunningham said the ranks of MSP partners has been a significant growth area for Splunk, which signed on 23 MSPs as partners in the third quarter.

"Since becoming a partner in 2014, our growth with Splunk has been significant and has allowed RTP to leverage our entire portfolio to provide turnkey solutions to our customers," said Jim Sallusto, senior managing director with RTP Technology, a Paramus, N.J.-based IT solutions and professional services provider, in a statement. He praised the services and tools offered through the Partner+ program, as well as the support provided by Splunk's partner teams.

While Splunk has long worked with partners of all types, it has been steadily adding tracks for specific partner types in recent years, including a tract for referral partners earlier this year and the track for distributors, which went live in August.

The new OEM track will assist software developers and solution providers that embed Splunk software within their products, enabling turnkey reporting, data forensics and big data analytics applications. The new systems integrator track will assist SIs that build vertical solutions on the Splunk platform. Both tracks are slated to launch at Splunk's Global Partner Summit next year.

The Splunk Certification Program upgrades include all new exam content, according to the company, as well as three new certifications and a more secure exam platform.

In addition to the partner program announcements, Splunk debuted a number of upgrades and enhancements across its product portfolio, including in its IT management and security software.

Splunk debuted the 7.2 release of its Splunk Enterprise and Splunk Cloud platforms and what the company calls "Splunk Next," a series of upcoming technologies that will widen the potential audience of Splunk system users and provide access to more data sources.

The company launched a new edition of Splunk IT Service Intelligence (ITSI), which IT management teams use to better predict and even prevent IT system problems. Splunk ITSI 4.0 includes new key performance indicator capabilities to predict KPIs in such areas as customer experience, application workloads and IT infrastructure health. The 4.0 release also offers deeper predictive cause analysis capabilities and integration with DevOps management software from Splunk's recent acquisition of VictorOps.

Splunk also announced new capabilities for its security offerings including new security automation, orchestration and response features in the Splunk Enterprise Security. Some of those new capabilities stem from Splunk's February acquisition of Phantom Cyber.

On Wednesday Splunk announced the general availability of Splunk for Industrial IIoT, the company’s first solution specifically for Internet of Things tasks. The software combines the capabilities of Splunk Enterprise, Splunk Machine Learning Toolkit and Splunk Industrial Asset Intelligence.