Johannesburg, 02 Sept 2026
SolarWinds is expanding its channel opportunity across Africa, giving partners new opportunities to grow their businesses through its IT infrastructure management, monitoring and observability portfolio.
This is according to Sheetal Kalra, Channel Account Manager, Middle East, Türkiye and English-Speaking Africa at SolarWinds, following a series of customer and partner engagements across the continent.
Kalra says: “Partners across Africa are showing strong interest in the opportunities SolarWinds can bring to their customers, particularly around our latest AI innovations. We are seeing significant potential across East, West and southern Africa, and our focus is on working closely with partners to help them develop the capabilities, pipeline and customer relationships needed to grow.”
Kalra says partners in Africa are highly receptive to the opportunities for them to grow with SolarWinds. The company recently announced updates to its partner programme, offering new tiered benefits with more incentives and higher discounts at higher tiers; enhanced marketing investments including proposal-based marketing funds: co-brandable assets and ready-to-execute campaigns in a box; improved enablement opportunities and a better partner experience overall.
She notes that distributors such as ATS Network Management play an important role in extending SolarWinds’ reach across the region and supporting partners as they develop their capabilities and customer opportunities. Through continued innovation and its refreshed partner programme, SolarWinds aims to further expand its presence across Africa while creating new growth opportunities for its channel ecosystem.
Kalra says: “One of the biggest changes that we have brought into our partner programme is to revise our channel-initiated revenue targets for our partner community. We have also brought in some new competencies that our partners have to fulfil for them to get elevated to higher partnership tiers. In response to feedback from our partners, we have also strengthened the commercial benefits and price protection available at higher tiers.”
SolarWinds has four partnership tiers – authorised partner level, followed by advanced, premier and elite. Each level, from advanced partnership to elite partnership, has its own revenue targets, required competencies and discount structures.
“We encourage our partners across Africa to take advantage of these opportunities by investing in training, achieving the necessary certifications and developing the competencies needed to progress through the partner programme,” she says.
“SolarWinds enables partners to conduct demos and proofs of concept, helping them build confidence and trust with their end customers. ATS Network Management also provides technical support and guidance, allowing partners to develop their capabilities and gain the experience they need to eventually manage the business independently.”
Kalra adds: “I have taken it as a personal challenge to ensure that, before the end of this year, we see a significant number of partners across Africa progress into higher tiers. I'm already having very active conversations with the partners across the whole of the country. We want to help our partners build stronger pipelines, develop the right competencies and ultimately become more self-sufficient in growing their SolarWinds businesses. Our goal is to give them the commercial, technical and enablement support they need to build sustainable customer relationships and grow profitably.”
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