IBM Security Services, one of the largest managed service providers, is looking to expand its reach with a new alliance program.

With security powerhouse partners like Cisco Systems Inc., IBM aims to find development support for its new services and offerings, as well as gain access to new technology to integrate into its systems.

“We want to work together,” said Erin Jensen (pictured, right), global partner executive for IBM at Cisco. “The landscape of the threats is changing, our world’s changing, we’re in a pandemic and we’ve got to be able to pivot and help customers solve these problems together. The Alliance Program gives us a formal way to put the wood behind the arrow.”

Jensen and Kandyce Tripp (pictured, left), partner of global Security Services alliances at IBM, spoke with Lisa Martin, host of theCUBE, SiliconANGLE Media’s livestreaming studio, during IBM Think. They discussed IBM’s new Security Services Alliance Program, their partnership with Cisco and more. (* Disclosure below.)

Building alliances

On March 1, IBM launched its Security Services Alliance Program, intended to reward partners with security solutions and grow relationships with other businesses, Cisco being one of the most prominent examples of those partners.

“These are the partners that are committed to doing a couple of different things, one of which is supporting the development of our offerings,” Tripp said. “It’s also partners that are integrating into our technology platform, and they also train and enable our engineers and our consultants, as well as our sellers.”

The program supplies IBM and partners with tools to integrate with IBM security products and adapt to the changing security landscape through collaboration rather than competition.

With an increasing number of organizations moving to the cloud, adapting to the digital world is a behemoth of a challenge. Jensen shared insights on how Cisco and IBM’s partnership benefits businesses adopting the use of the cloud.

“One of the things that’s also been valuable in our partnership is we have teams of people that understand our customers and can make these recommendations based on what we’re putting together behind the scenes and helping them through the journey,” she said. “Security is a big part of what’s on everyone’s mind, but as far as regular IT operations and networking, it’s all part of one journey.”

The pandemic has heightened the need for managed services. Cisco has put a lot of effort into securing remote workers through zero trust and edge security techniques to make it safe for workers to connect safely to their companies. But the severe shortage of cybersecurity skills means many customers don’t have the resources to manage an entirely new class of security tools and tactics.

“If they don’t have the bandwidth to manage this themselves, IBM really picks that ball up and runs with it. That’s another big value out of our partnership,” Jensen concluded.

Watch the complete video interview below, and be sure to check out more of SiliconANGLE’s and theCUBE’s coverage of IBM Think. (* Disclosure: TheCUBE is a paid media partner for IBM Think. Neither IBM, the sponsor for theCUBE’s event coverage, nor other sponsors have editorial control over content on theCUBE or SiliconANGLE.)

Photo: SiliconANGLE