Cato’s game-changing MSASE Partner Platform: Because service providers also needed a break 

Managed service providers tell us they see great opportunity from so many businesses migrating to SASE. But many struggle to take advantage of it. Why is that?

In this post, we’ll examine why service providers can find it hard to build a Managed SASE (MSASE) service, and four things they need when launching one. We’ll explain how Cato is leveraging nearly 10 years of experience leading SASE, to disrupt the channel with a game-changing platform that helps service providers deliver managed SASE services. If you’re planning to launch MSASE, this post is for you!

What’s so hard about delivering a Managed SASE service?

SASE is the convergence of networking and security: from point products into a single service. SASE promised to make it easier for businesses to consume, and for service providers to deliver. But for many service providers, SASE has not proven simple to deliver at all. Why is that?

MSASE service providers build their services around a vendor’s SASE product. But many SASE vendors didn’t build a single converged SASE software stack from the ground up. Instead, they used point products, or legacy hardware solutions ported to virtual machines, or disparate software from the many companies they acquired. 

These point products each require separate installation, configuration, maintenance, monitoring, and software upgrades. They might require identities and policies to be defined in multiple places, perhaps in multiple consoles. The effort and complexity leave little room to focus on delivering great customer service, making it hard to build a managed service and to integrate it with existing services.

A four-point plan for great Managed SASE service

After years of working with MSASE service providers, we identified four key requirements that every provider needs when they launch a Managed SASE service.

They want to offer a differentiated service. 

This doesn’t just mean the very best underlying product. It also means the managed service they wrap around it. They want the vendor to do the daily maintenance work, allowing them to focus on excellent customer service. And they want tools to help them manage a large base of customers well.

They want to get to market fast.

It’s a tough gig launching a Managed SASE service. Providers who didn’t previously offer both network and security, can lack skills, processes, knowledge, tools and content in key areas. These can be expensive and time-consuming to develop. Many want help to build those procedures, documents and collateral, and to train staff.

They want to sell, deliver and monetize deals fast.

Time is money. They want help to find leads, to convert them to opportunities, to close them, to deliver them and to bill for them … fast. They want to price fast, without waiting for their vendor. They want help to convince customers that their service is the best. They want to deploy, configure, test and bill services fast.

They want to maximize profitability

They want a great cash flow, by avoiding up-front hardware costs. They want to run their services with as few staff as possible. If they’re adding network or security for the first time, they may want to delay hiring expensive new staff until they have customers on board. And they want tools to help them see which customers they should upsell, and which customers they need to retain.

A game-changer in networking and security: Cato’s MSASE Partner Platform

It’s challenging to launch an MSASE service and make it successful. There’s so much to do, and vendors with point products can make things more difficult. Service Providers need help!

So, let’s talk about how Cato can help. Our mission is to create world-class networking and security solutions for everyone. And our mission for partners is to enable world-class managed SASE services.

To achieve this mission, we recently launched the Cato MSASE Partner Platform: a commercial and technical framework to help partners deliver managed SASE services. 

We don’t think we’re being immodest when we say this will be a game-changer for the channel. Nobody has gone this far to help partners create the best possible managed service and then to launch it fast, to sell and deploy fast, and to maximize profitability.

Cato’s MSASE partner platform is here to help partners with their four key requirements.

First, we help partners offer a truly differentiated service: by giving them our converged, cloud-native platform; by allowing them to focus on service while we handle maintenance and upgrades; and by allowing them to manage efficiently with a multi-tenant, partner-brandable platform.

We help them get to market fast: using our know-how, tools, collateral, training, sales support and marketing support.

We help them to win and deploy deals fast: with test drives, proven proof-of-concept templates (70% win rate!), with quoting independence, and with features to deploy and configure quickly.

And finally, we help them to be more profitable: with a capex-free service to ease cash flow, AI to make NOC and SOC teams more efficient, optional managed services to let them launch now and invest in hiring staff later, and tools to help manage upsells and re-signs.

If you’re an MSP, GSI or carrier, looking to launch or improve your Managed SASE service, talk to us!

When you build a Managed SASE service with Cato, our MSASE Partner Platform will help you to deliver the best possible experience, launch it quickly, win and deploy deals fast, minimize the effort to run the service and maximize profitability. 

Find out more about the Cato MSASE Partner Platform.

Read the MSASE Partner Platform press release.

Ask for a conversation.