By Paul Ardoin, Cloud Alliance Marketing Manager, published September 17, 2020

Check Point is no stranger to shaping the future of security—from our inception, our breakthrough technologies have been disrupting the industry.

Check Point was recently awarded a Microsoft FY20 US partner award for the Azure Commercial Marketplace. In addition, over the years, thousands of Microsoft customers have turned to Check Point as a trusted security advisor. Taken separately, these items don’t indicate a trend. Together, however, they may very well indicate that Check Point and Microsoft are shaping not just the security industry, but the way enterprises approach their mission-critical businesses in the next decade.

Is an award and a sales report enough to channel our inner Nostradamus? Let’s find out—because many significant changes have happened in enterprise business in the last decade.

The Rise of Cloud

It wasn’t that long ago when networking experts predicted that virtualization would never be ready to run production environments. Yet only a few months later, companies were building virtualized server farms running full production environments for their customers.

As these environments matured and the industry coined “cloud” terminology, marketplaces—where organizations could purchase, install, setup, and run third-party software—began to grow. When it comes to cloud marketplaces, Microsoft Azure is arguably the gold standard.

The Perception of Security

For decades, network security has been thought of as a drag on innovation. We’ve seen many industries design for functionality first and worry about security when customers complain. In the last six months, the global pandemic has forced many enterprise businesses to go remote—functionality first, just like always… but with one big difference.

They’re no longer waiting for consumers to complain about their credit card data being stolen or that they need to invest more in on-premises data centers. An IT department gets people up and running immediately and then start to lock down systems so that 6th generation attacks don’t bring the company to its knees.

The Role of Cloud Marketplaces

These cloud marketplaces like Azure Marketplace now offer critical infrastructure for sensitive data through third parties. Check Point is one of these third parties—our CloudGuard and SandBlast software is listed on Azure Marketplace.

Cloud marketplaces are experiencing fantastic growth trajectories right now. And, software vendors (like Check Point) are getting in on this by selling and providing their software to enterprises and other organizations directly through the Azure Marketplace. It’s good for Microsoft, but it also helps customers maximize investments in Azure, cementing their relationships with each end user organization.

Azure Marketplace is one of the premier destinations for enterprise cloud software and Check Point is extremely excited to be part of its success!

So how does that affect the future of enterprise business?

Enabling Security as a Fast-follower

The market is discovering that businesses won’t move their business-critical assets to the cloud until they’re sure their security is just as good as it would be in an on-premises datacenter. (Better, even!)

Check Point provides crucial technology to make that happen. Our CloudGuard capabilities—most of them available in solutions on Azure Marketplace—provide the layered, defense-in-depth security that Microsoft needs for their customers to move to the Azure cloud.  The better the security, the higher the cloud usage—and that is better for organizations’ bottom lines, for users, and for customers!

That’s why Check Point and Microsoft Azure work together so well—and that’s why our partner award means everything to the next decade of enterprise business.

The Future of Enterprise Business at Microsoft Ignite

Microsoft Ignite 2020 will be the one of the year’s biggest online technology conferences, and Check Point is proud to be a Microsoft Featured Partner. Stop by and meet with our Security Experts to discuss how security can empower your business to attain your goals in the coming year. Register for Ignite today!

Don’t miss our sessions!

  • On Wednesday, September 23rd, it’s time to Ask the Experts with a focus on Pragmatic Azure Security. Our panel will discuss lessons learned from the some of the largest Azure security projects ever undertaken. Register for Ignite <link>, then come to our Featured Partner Page to RSVP!
  • On Thursday, September 24, we’ll share Tales from the Trenches: Real-Life Strategies for Azure Security, where our panel of technical experts and engineers will discuss best practices for protecting mission-critical assets in the cloud. Register for Ignite <link>, then come to our Featured Partner Page to RSVP!

If you have any questions, please contact me or your local Check Point account representative or partner, or contact us here.

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