Jeff Tripp, who was previously director of North America channel sales for Dell’s networking business, was also named Skyhigh’s senior director of America’s channels.

Skyhigh Security, which was the part of the old McAfee enterprise business that was spun out of Symphony Technology earlier this year to focus on the Security Service Edge [SSE] business, has made a pair of moves to deepen their channel presence and enhance their channel strategy. Scott Goree, most recently the global leader of worldwide distribution at Nutanix, responsible for their  worldwide channel renewal business, has been named Skyhigh’s vice president of worldwide channels. Jeff Tripp, who was most recently director of North America channel sales for Dell’s networking business, has been appointed Skyhigh’s senior director of America’s channels.

“I couldn’t say no to this opportunity,” Goree, who arrived at Skyhigh a week ago, told ChannelBuzz. “We want to mirror our technology innovation that has led to our support from Gartner in their Magic Quadrant to our channel program as well.

“We are partner centric and a high portion of the business comes through the channel,” said Paul Barbosa, Skyhigh’s chief revenue officer, to whom Goree reports. “All we see is the opportunity to team with our partners in a profitable way.”

“We see a channel-centric go to market as essential for scaling,” Goree added. “This is how we get new logos.”

McAfee in its heyday used to have quite a large channel, which is not the strategy that Skyhigh will be using.

“From a numbers standpoint, we will have a smaller footprint,” Barbosa said. “Our emphasis is on making sure that we are building deep relationships, with resellers. distribution, and exploring MSSP routes. We have several dozen partners now and want to make sure that the way that we manage them is very effective.”

Barbosa also emphasized that the sales teams and channel teams have been working together temporarily in this initial phase, to get them working together and make sure that they are on the same page.

“From a channel teams standpoint, we embedded the channel team with the sales teams for about six months,” he said. “It was an intentional and temporary phase going forward. As we look to make investments, we will have a ratio of field managers to channels managers of around 8-1 or 10-1.”

Skyhigh sees its existing distribution as well suited to working with partners in all geos.

“We have the advantage of having a global footprint,” Barbosa said. “Like many companies, we see ourselves with a very strong position in the largest economies around the world, with the ability to extend through partners and others. We see the same in North America, and we don’t see the North American market as one where we would be more direct. We see an equal weighting between broadline and specialized distribution because we provide value to both and to all types of customers.”

The channel program that Skyhigh is using incorporates elements of the McAfee program, but there will be a lot of adjustments with Goree’s arrival.

‘We have a good foundation, with a portal and a certification that’s out there,” Goree said. “We have the basic building blocks. But there’s more to do and build it together with Skyhigh branding, in order to make it simple, profitable and easy for partners to understand.”

“We have an advantage in having come from a robust channel framework with McAfee and we have stayed very close to the Trellis team as well,” Barbosa added. “We want to build a program that attracts demand. We took the  foundation of what was there in the old program and built a bridge to not disrupt business. We will be launching more elements of the new program in the next quarter or two.”

“We are excited about this opportunity,” Barbosa concluded. “Both Scott and I come from an incredible partner-centric heritage. It’s the only way we know to scale business. We will be hitting the road here soon to go face to face with our largest partners and build with them.”