A Nz Sees Strong Demand For Security And Network Consolidation Cloudflare

Partners across Australia and New Zealand (A/NZ) have a big opportunity to meet demand for a consolidated approach to security and networking, with Cloudflare looking to support those that are doubling down on the concept.

Speaking to ARN , Cloudflare area vice president Pat Breen said security has previously been viewed as a layer on top of networking — particularly when it comes to AI — providing keen partners with the chance to make the most of the current situation and dismantle the separation.

“There’s a real gap around AI security in general,” Breen said. “Customers’ employees are coming in and they don’t know what data they’re putting into AI models, whether the AI models are supplied by the company or their personal accounts, token cost control — all these sorts of things are definitely big themes with our biggest customers as well as in the SME [small- to medium enterprise] market as well.

“Partners definitely have opportunities around the convergence between network and security consolidation and trying to simplify. That’s a huge trend here.

“Having managed services around those kinds of offerings is particularly relevant in the SME [small- to medium-sized enterprise] space here and in New Zealand. I’d say that’s relevant almost through the entire market.”

That skills gap is something Breen has noticed in New Zealand specifically around the outsourcing of security operation centres.

“It just comes down to skills availability. It’s challenging in [the Australian] market, but it’s even more challenging over there,” he said.

“With what we are seeing, there’s definitely a lot of interest in the MSP-style delivery model in that market more than anywhere else.

“In terms of specific skills, I would just say cyber in general — it’s massively in demand there, and there’s not enough of it, so partners have a key gap to fill.”

To address the gap in AI security while also filtering out every average potential tech partner, Cloudflare launched its One Design Partner Designation — a selective initiative aimed at partners with deep technical expertise — in June this year to prioritise its time with the cream of the crop.

The designation focuses on the Cloudflare One secure access service edge (SASE) platform, providing partners with resources to lock in growth if they have the expertise to pull it off.

“What the Cloudflare One Design program’s is finding partners right now that not only are interested in working with Cloudflare around zero trust but also looking at partners that are able to adapt to the rapidly evolving technology environment — trying to find the right fit of what’s good for them and what’s good for us in terms of them being able to cover that customer demand,” he said.

If partners can meet the vendor’s high criteria, designated businesses gain access to the Cloudflare One stack, which includes a library of AI agent skills to help them plan migrations and map customer requirements onto architectures they want to deploy.

In the first cohort of selected companies, The Missing Link was the only locally headquartered partner to earn the designation

“We picked them because they have enormous experience around consolidating network and security, but they have much broader cyber consulting credentials,” Breen said.

“They’ve done a lot of work around transforming customers’ network and security environments. Even before they signed up as a Cloudflare One Design partner, they were our first authorised service delivery partner, so when we were assessing who would be right for Cloudflare One Design partnerships, they were very close to the top of list.

“We probably talked with them for a quarter in regard to trying to make sure that the program was the right fit for both of us. Now, they are a lead partner for us when we are doing Cloudflare One deployments today.”

He also highlighted The Missing Link’s co-owner and chief information security officer (CISO) Aaron Bailey, with Breen adding he has an excellent personal relationship with him in terms of what’s mutually important for their businesses.

“It’s not just a line of business for them; it’s actually something that’s quite strategic for their business,” he said.

“We didn’t want to necessarily just find any partner that might go, ‘Okay, that’s an extra badge that we’ve got.’ We wanted to really have a partner that was going to lead with our offering into the market. That’s a key part of working with The Missing Link.”

More businesses will earn the designation over time, but the selection process means there won’t be a huge influx any time soon.

“We’re being pretty selective on who we add. We just want to make sure that if they do have that designation, they are able to deliver what we are promising our customers with that program,” Breen said.

“The remainder of this year will be very focused on the partnership with The Missing Link, but over time, we’ll look to add more. For us, it’s very important that we get some joint wins together and get that momentum going. Just as a reminder, we launched this in June. It’s a relatively recent program for us, but it’s something that we’re pretty excited .”

Aside from Cloudflare One and its Design designation, Breen said the vendor is focusing on its Developer Platform offering — one of the reasons the area vice president joined Cloudflare back in October last year .

“That is creating a massive opportunity for us in terms of a consolidated platform to build the agentic internet on,” he said. “Right now, a lot of the conversations that we’re having are at the intersection of those offerings around AI security and building agent infrastructure.”

That opportunity is causing Cloudflare to change its operating model in order to service demand and present itself as a platform of choice.

“We have been changing a lot as a business to both use AI internally, but then also to make sure that we’re having the right conversations with our customers,” Breen said. “This conversation is evolving, if not on a monthly basis, on a weekly basis, almost.

“So, we’re just making sure that our teams are equipped to have the right conversations with our customers and service that demand.

“That change is a constant. You can’t turn your back on it. You’ve got to be really consciously evolving the team and their capabilities and the conversations that they can have.”

He also noted customers are looking to build more with AI as well.

“I’m seeing this really interesting conversation happen amongst our teams where we go into a customer and prototype, let’s say, a mortgage process at a bank,” Breen said. “We’re able to demonstrate to them all the parts of the platform that are being used when we actually talk our technology, but they actually see it working.”

Breen also highlighted how Australia is facing a surge in network traffic, yet its growth is being outpaced by the rapid rise in cyber attacks.

According to the area vice president, the vendor blocks around 1.7 billion attacks in Australia per day.

“My biggest customers right now are seeing patterns that we’re helping them understand where they’re seeing a shift in what’s hitting their services,” he said.

This, Breen continued, presents partners with an opportunity, particularly in the enterprise space as boards across the country are talking improving security in the face of frontier models.

“If you look at what’s happening with the open weight models and how close the gap is now, there is real concern that within less than a year that cyber threats from advancements in model capability are going to be overwhelming,” he said. “When Mythos first came out, and us being part of Glasswing and looking at the implications of that, if I was to really just make it quite simple, it’s how do you make sure that the controls that you should have had in place are in place?

“It’s a disappointing punchline at the end of the day, but what I would say is there is a tremendous opportunity there of security uplift across pretty much the entire industry and partners are central to that.”

Looking ahead, Breen said Cloudflare is pivoting towards more of a go-to-market approach, such as homing in on public sector, digital natives, enterprise, mid-market, and New Zealand with a specific strategy for each.

He also said the vendor is reinforcing its commitment to driving engagements alongside partners.

“Really making sure that the conversations that we’re having with our partners are us jointly growing our businesses together is important to me,” he added. “That is one area that I really want to make sure is bedded down.

“My partners are telling me, ‘Hey, we are working successfully together.’ That’s an important thing for me in terms of that change.”