WALID ISSA, SENIOR MANAGER, SOLUTIONS ENGINEERING, MIDDLE EAST AND AFRICA, NETAPP
Q & A
EDITOR’ S
Partners need to rethink how they approach certifications and internal training not as a checkbox exercise, but as a growth enabler.
internal training not as a checkbox exercise, but as a growth enabler.
The most immediate area for upskilling would be Hybrid Cloud and AI and Data Analytics Certifications. Customers are moving across hybrid and multicloud environments, and they want partners who can guide them through complexity. to help customers run faster and leaner in the cloud.
AI certification is becoming essential especially as customers are accelerating their AI adoption. They need partners who can go beyond infrastructure discussions and be able to architect AI solution from ingesting to training to inferencing and data governance.
Security-focused certifications are also gaining traction. With ransomware threats and compliance requirements on the rise, partners who understand data protection, recovery, and governance have a serious edge.
Knowing how to configure and manage backup solutions, secure storage environments, and automate policy enforcement is no longer a niche skill – it is core to partner value.
Partners should also look at their commercial teams. Sales, solution consultants, and even marketing leads need
WALID ISSA, SENIOR MANAGER, SOLUTIONS ENGINEERING, MIDDLE EAST AND AFRICA, NETAPP
For channel partners, skills development cannot be an afterthought anymore. Customers are looking for partners who bring more than just sales support, they expect technical depth, solution alignment, and strategic guidance.
To keep pace, partners need to rethink how they approach certifications and
Certifications around cloud migration, storage efficiency, and workload optimisation particularly in Azure, AWS, and Google Cloud environments are becoming essential. At NetApp, we see strong uptake around platforms like Azure NetApp Files and Spot, AWS FSXN and Google’ s NetApp Volumes especially for partners who want to stay sharp able to articulate business outcomes, not just product specs. This is where joint enablement with vendors helps offering contextual learning paths, not just technical modules. We’ re doing this through NetApp’ s Partner Sphere Programme, which rewards partners who invest in their people and build deep capability around cloud, data, and modern infrastructure.
The real benefit of certification is not the badge. It is the confidence across your partner’ s teams, in front of customers, and within the broader ecosystem. And the more intentional they are about learning, the stronger and more trusted their position becomes in the market. •
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