Partnerships Unraveled

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In this special Pax8 Beyond '26 feature of Partnerships Unraveled, we sit down with Kyle Tatum, Senior Channel Sales Manager at NordSecurity. Kyle leads new managed service provider recruitment for Nord and has been part of the channel program since its early days, giving him a first-hand view of how Nord scaled past a thousand partners while keeping the experience personal.

Kyle opens with what has made NordSecurity's channel program stand out as it has grown. Every new partner gets a free Not For Resale license to use internally, direct attention from a real person during the recruit phase, and a dedicated account manager as soon as they sell their first seat. No inbox roulette. Nord's alliance work follows the same integration-first mindset. The recent partnership with CrowdStrike started with two real integrations: an API-driven shutdown of secure access when CrowdStrike detects a threat, and a SIEM integration in progress. Marketing then follows from the actual substance.

From there, the conversation turns to consumer brand equity as a channel tool. NordVPN is a globally recognized brand, and Kyle treats it as an icebreaker. Even when partners initially assume Nord is a consumer-only company, that opens the door to demonstrating what the enterprise stack actually delivers. Kyle draws a parallel to how Nike broke into skateboarding through one credible product moment. On AI, Kyle is thoughtful. Managed service provider requests are moving toward Model Context Protocol integrations that let them manage products through Claude or ChatGPT. Nord has already shipped that for Nordstellar and is bringing it to other products.

Kyle closes on a piece of practical wisdom that grounds the whole conversation. Don't get caught up in the hype cycle. Vendor conversations, real integrations, and real relationships are what shape lasting channel partnerships. People buy from people they like.
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In this episode of Partnerships Unraveled, we sit down with Evgenia Ostrovskaya, Director of Channel Sales for EMEA Digital at Johnson Controls. With more than 25 years across software development, product, customer success, marketing, and sales, Evgenia brings a full-lifecycle view of what makes channel programs work in the smart and intelligent buildings space.

Evgenia opens with a mindset she brings to every partner conversation: partners function as an extension of every process inside the vendor organization. Marketing, sales, support, delivery, training. If a team does not fully understand its own internal processes, it cannot help partners scale them either. That is why she puts so much emphasis on qualification and delivery readiness. Scaling the process means investing in quality before adding partners, and pacing yourself when the platform is still finding product-market fit. Empathy for friction, especially in the early days of any new offering, is what separates channel programs that scale from those that stall.

From there, the conversation moves into how the channel for smart and intelligent buildings has evolved. The shift from product install to full lifecycle service management changes everything about how partners deliver, from initial setup to ongoing customer value and recurring revenue. Siloed systems have given way to open, interoperable platforms and ecosystems, which means partners with integration capabilities are the ones pulling ahead. Cyber security has moved from a future concern to a gating function today. Evgenia frames the strongest partners as those investing in these capabilities alongside her, building the kind of value chain that keeps end customers coming back.

Evgenia closes on the formula she keeps coming back to. Companies exist to solve customer problems better than others. Channel teams exist to help partners do the same. When both sides invest in the outcomes their customers actually want, everyone wins.
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Ep. 248 – David Turner, Distribution Leader for EMEA at Nutanix
In this episode of Partnerships Unraveled, we sit down with David Turner, Distribution Leader for EMEA at Nutanix. With 26 years in the industry, split between distribution and vendor roles, David brings a rare view from both sides of the channel, and a clear sense of what actually makes partnerships work.
David opens with what's stayed constant across his career: channel leadership is a people business, built on trust, a clear vision, and mutual profitability. What's changed is the complexity of the landscape, as customers increasingly look for orchestrated solutions instead of straightforward fulfillment. That's where segmentation comes in. Nutanix invests deeply in its strategic partners while working closely with distributors to spot the partners on the rise, especially in emerging areas like containers and generative AI. David is equally open about how much Nutanix leans on its partners' hard-won customer relationships, describing the philosophy simply: "we're borrowing the relationship," and treating it with real care.
David also explores what it takes to lead across EMEA, embracing the unique character of each market it contains. Nutanix keeps its core program and value proposition consistent everywhere, then gives each region room to shape its own mix of partner types and commercial terms, whether that means system integrators, traditional resellers, or service providers. That same philosophy of choice carries into Nutanix's go-to-market: partners can build on the hardware, hypervisor, or cloud environment their customers already prefer, and can operate as both reseller and service provider at once, so the answer to "can you support this?" is almost always yes.
Looking ahead, David sees distributors moving beyond fulfillment into transformation: orchestrating partner networks, sharing data, and enabling growth at scale. It's a shift that keeps the whole ecosystem, and its trusted relationships, moving forward together.
Key takeaways:
Trust and Profitability Anchor Great Channel Leadership. David points to two things that never change in channel leadership: genuine trust between people, and a shared focus on mutual profitability. The strongest leaders walk the walk, standing behind what they say and staying laser focused on making sure everyone understands their role and their share of the profit pool.
Borrowing the Relationship, and Protecting It Like Your Own. David describes Nutanix's channel model simply: partners bring 20 to 30 years of customer relationships to the table, and Nutanix sees itself as borrowing that trust, not owning it. That means treating every partner-held relationship with real care, since the end customer belongs to the partner, not the vendor.
Segmentation Creates Room for Both Scale and Discovery. David treats segmentation as the tool that makes room for both strategic, established partners and the ones just coming into their own. Deep investment goes to the large relationships that already know Nutanix's playbook, while distributors help identify partners on the rise in newer spaces like containers and generative AI.
One Program, Many Markets: Consistency Meets Local Nuance. EMEA covers a huge range of mature and high-growth markets, and David embraces just how different they are. Nutanix keeps its core program and value proposition consistent everywhere, then lets each region choose its own mix of partner types, from system integrators to service providers, and adjust commercial terms where needed.
Distribution Is Moving From Fulfillment to Transformation. David sees the distributor role evolving well beyond order processing into orchestrating the wider partner network. That means putting data to work, scaling enablement and training, and helping partners pivot toward new consumption models, positioning distribution as a genuine growth engine for the next few years.

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In this special Pax8 Beyond '26 feature of Partnerships Unraveled, we sit down with Gene Reich, Cofounder and CEO at Traceless. Coming from more than two decades running an Apple-focused managed service provider, Gene brings an operator's view to a conversation about human communication security, the help desk as an emerging attack surface, and a security brand that leads with positivity.

Gene opens with how Traceless came to exist. Running his own MSP, he kept finding the same vulnerability. Help desk conversations, password requests, and human communication were consistently the weakest point, and no existing tool solved it well. He built a prototype, brought five managed service provider peers into an early advisory group, and iterated from there. The attack surface has kept expanding since. Threat actors have moved beyond email into ticketing systems, Teams, Slack, and now voice AI. Traceless has grown alongside that landscape, focused on giving providers and their customers protection that meets how people actually communicate today.

From there, the conversation moves into how Traceless shows up in a market known for fear-based branding. Gene deliberately chose the opposite approach. Tie-dye Nike jumpsuits, colorful design, and a message centered on helping providers get healthier through better tooling, without leaning on fear tactics. The AI approach follows the same intentional line. Traceless runs its own small language model that never dials home, stays inside a container, and adds contextual analysis on top of traditional data protection. The platform flags high-risk transactions and gives providers a chance to guide the moment with clear guardrails.

Gene closes on a simple reframe. The digital assets managed service providers control today are the equivalent of what banks hold. Customers should expect the same level of security from both, and the providers who deliver that will be the ones customers trust the most.
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In this episode of Partnerships Unraveled, we sit down with Michael Roch, Partnerships Advisor and Founder at MHPR Advisors. With 25 years advising senior leaders on partnerships, alliances, and ecosystems across professional services, life sciences, and technology, Michael brings a rare cross-sector view of what actually makes channel and alliance programs thrive.

Michael opens with the honest observation that the technology channel gets a lot right and leads other sectors in how partnerships are built. Where he sees room for improvement is in three areas most companies quietly struggle with. One partner program rarely fits every partner type. Short-termism in reward structures still overweights the initial deal, when profitable growth comes from adoption, renewals, and expansion. And the partner experience often ends up harder than it needs to be. Underneath all of it, consistency is what most alliance managers underestimate. Institutional knowledge solves the hard problems, and turnover in the alliance seat is one of the biggest risks to it.

From there, Michael introduces the practical tool most ecosystems miss: the partnership health check. He distinguishes it from a structured reset, which is a bigger reevaluation done when something is clearly off. A health check is lighter, takes a week or two end to end, and revolves around five simple questions. Are we still aligned on outcomes? Is the business producing what we agreed to? Is the day-to-day model running smoothly? How is trust? What needs to change? Done every twelve to eighteen months, health checks are how alliance managers spot trends early and keep partnerships on track.

Michael closes with a forward-looking view: the future of ecosystems belongs to quality over quantity. AI-assisted decision-making, coordinated networks, and the discipline to focus on partners genuinely aligned with the business are what will define the next chapter of channel work.
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