Palo Alto Networks Unveils Commercial Velocity Program To Target Midmarket, SMB Through The Channel: Exclusive

The cybersecurity giant is pledging to rely on partners for driving accelerated growth downmarket, as part of a push to expand platformization and AI-powered security across a broader set of customers, Palo Alto Networks’ Simone Gammeri tells CRN.

Palo Alto Networks is pledging to rely on partners to drive adoption of the vendor’s cybersecurity platform in the midmarket and SMB segments, as part of an elevated push to accelerate growth downmarket, Palo Alto Networks executive Simone Gammeri told CRN exclusively.

The move—which comes as platformization and AI-powered security remains front and center for the cybersecurity giant—represents a major broadening of efforts to work with channel partners beyond the enterprise, said Gammeri, chief partnerships officer at Palo Alto Networks.

During the vendor’s fiscal year 2027, which began Aug. 1, Palo Alto Networks will be rolling out a new Commercial Velocity Program that will establish a pool of downmarket accounts that will be partner-only, he said.

After piloting the program in Japan, the U.K. and Australia and New Zealand, “we're scaling it globally now across all territories,” Gammeri said. “We're going to draw a line and say, all these accounts are served just by partners.”

The plan is for partners to “go and mine the prospect base by themselves,” he said, and Palo Alto Networks will not have sales representatives assigned to the accounts.

“We’ll have inside sales reps to support the partner,” Gammeri said. “[But] we don't need to own the opportunity. You go own the opportunity.”

The ultimate goal, together with boosting the company’s work with the channel, is “increasing velocity downmarket” at a time of rising demand across all organization sizes for more-robust cyber defense, he said.

“The idea is to create a tremendous amount of velocity in a segment that we didn't penetrate before,” he said.

Among the Palo Alto Networks offerings being targeted for the customers are the vendor’s next-generation firewalls—including both physical and software firewalls—as well as the company’s Prisma Browser, Cortex endpoint security and Prisma SASE (Secure Access Service Edge), according to Gammeri.

Firewalls will continue to make up the majority of sales to smaller customers, while midmarket customers are expected to represent a larger opportunity for SASE and broader platformization deals, he noted.

The Commercial Velocity Program is being announced to solution and service providers during Palo Alto Networks’ Executive Partner Summit this week in Las Vegas, the company said. The launch comes one year after Gammeri, formerly a senior vice president heading the company’s SASE and network security sales, was promoted to chief partnerships officer at Palo Alto Networks.

Partner Perspective

At Chicago-based solution provider powerhouse Ahead, the move by Palo Alto Networks to drive more business downmarket resonates strongly with Ahead’s own push to expand in the midmarket segment, according to Stephen Ayoub, co-founder and president at Ahead.

Ahead, No. 24 on CRN’s Solution Provider 500 for 2026, has continued hiring specifically for its midmarket team following the launch of its dedicated midmarket organization in late 2024, Ayoub said.

Similar to Palo Alto Networks, at Ahead “we’re trying to take the disciplines that we've learned from the enterprise clients, and bring that skillset, bring that discipline, bring that knowledge base to clients in the midmarket space,” he said.

The goal, Ayoub said, is to give customers “an elevated experience from what they get from a lot of partners that only focus on midmarket.”

The reality is that “all customers are facing the same problems, especially around security. And there's no reason why we can't continue to grow within that space,” he added.

Ayoub said he welcomed the move by Palo Alto Networks to place a bigger emphasis on working with partners such as Ahead to bring advanced security into the midmarket. Ahead has historically built a strong Palo Alto Networks business around network security, he said, and is now expanding its work with products such as the vendor’s AI-powered Cortex XSIAM security operations platform.

"Network security has always been important—but we're seeing customers invest in large Palo [enterprise agreements] because what they want is a platform play, not a point product play,” Ayoub said. “Palo has consistently delivered best-in-breed products. And as customers look for an overall security strategy, they're looking for those platform players to double down on.”

Going forward, “we are going to partner with those key vendors that have a strong midmarket technology and pricing model, that can help us bring these enterprise solutions to our midmarket clients,” Ayoub said.

‘Massive’ Profitability Opportunities

To help accelerate its growth downmarket, Palo Alto Networks is introducing a number of new financial incentives as part of the new Commercial Velocity Program, according to Gammeri.

Through the program, “we are [taking] what used to be our cost of customer acquisition, and we are giving it back in terms of rebates to partners and distributors,” he said. “So that's a massive profitability opportunity for both distributors and partners—even partners who didn't used to get any rebates from us because they were too far down [in size].”

The initiative builds on a broader overhaul that has been aimed at more closely linking Palo Alto Networks’ channel investments to partner performance, which has already seen the company substantially increase the rewards available to partners over the past year, Gammeri said.

In February, Palo Alto Networks unveiled significant updates to its NextWave Partner Program, including the elimination of rules that had previously locked partners out of fully maximizing their potential rebates.

“For partners, we grew their rebates 2X, 3X. It's probably going to grow more,” Gammeri said.

Thus, channel partners working with Palo Alto Networks have already been “seeing [more] profitability coming their way,” he said.

Meanwhile, the number of distributor-managed partners for Palo Alto Networks has grown by more than 30 percent during the past year, Gammeri said. At the same time, partners have been contributing more than 50 percent of the company’s pipeline for deal registrations and managed services.

“That’s a big number in this industry,” he said.

Ultimately, while Palo Alto Networks will continue supporting partners that specialize in driving individual products with customers, the biggest financial rewards will go to those partners who are engaged around platformization, Gammeri said.

“The message I give partners is always, if you want to stay specialized on a single product, great. We will make sure you can win in the point product conversation, and you'll get rewarded for your performance,” he said. “However, if you are embracing platform with us, you will be disproportionately rewarded for your leaning-in across our products.”