Security vendor Sophos recently announced a new partner program with Hardware as a Service company CharTec. Under the new relationship, CharTec MSPs will be able to offer (and finance) Sophos technology to their managed customers. This move is smart for Sophos as it reinforces a trend among MSP enabling vendors in their approach to using the channel.
For some time now, I've been suggesting that the traditional channel model has been undergoing a radical change. Vendors, many for the first time, are re-evaluating how they are engaging with MSPs, paying close attention to increasing their channel quality control (related to the types of MSPs they engage) and the amount of resources they spend on MSPs (limiting their exposure to resources spent on under-performing or non-performing partners). While not a distributor, CharTec will perform many functions that only a few years ago would have been delivered by the vendor.
I am a big fan of this "new" channel model, as it decentralizes from big distributors (there is still a need for big distributors) how MSPs go to market and interact with their vendors. Not only does this channel strategy work well at the SMB level, it is being utilized at the mid-market as well, but more to come on that later.
