Axiad is rolling out its first formal partner program as it looks to expand its presence in an evolving identity security space.
The San Jose, California, company’s Trusted Partner Program “marks a pivotal evolution in our go-to-market strategy, transforming our channel from opportunistic engagements to strategic alliances,” Simon Moran, vice president of strategic partners at Axiad, told MSSP Alert. “This program turns partners into force multipliers that accelerate growth, deliver compliance-aligned identity security solutions, and differentiate Axiad in a crowded market.”
Identity security has become a central concern for organizations. Threat actors are increasingly targeting identities and credentials to bypass traditional defenses and gain access into corporate networks.
“Identity security is the
backbone of modern cybersecurity, ensuring only verified users and systems can access sensitive data,” Ryan Terry, senior product marketing manager at
CrowdStrike, wrote in a blog post in March. “In a world where identities are often the weakest link, securing them isn’t just an IT concern – it’s a business imperative to protect your organization from identity-driven breaches and evolving cyber threats.”
An Expanding Identity Space
Identity and access management (IAM) has been a staple of cybersecurity for decades, according to Bassam Al-Khalidi, Axiad co-founder and chief innovation officer. However, in recent years, it has
evolved into ICAM – or identity, credential, and access management, Al-Khalidi wrote in a blog post.
“The number of identities exploded to include 30 identities for every knowledge worker, and a 45:1 ratio of machine identities to every human,” he wrote. “MFA [
multifactor authentication] was widely adopted for access, but breaches continued unabated and even increased, largely because of a preference for the weaker flavors of MFA or even incomplete MFA.”
At the same time, a working group under CISA during the Biden Administration created new requirements and standards that elevated the need to protect credentials as well as identity.
“Credentials ... are more unique than passwords,” Al-Khalidi wrote. “They can be physical or digital or both. Whether these credentials are transport layer security (TLS) user certificates, TLS machine certificates, FIDO passkeys, hardware keys or API keys, credentials are the bionic add-on to IAM.”
Identity is the Foundation
Axiad’s Moran stressed the critical role identities and credentials play.
“Identity is the foundation of every modern enterprise operation, whether it’s human, machine, API, workload, or AI agent,” he said. “The challenge isn’t just volume, it’s visibility. Many identities are unmanaged, creating risk blind spots that are hard to detect.”
The company’s offerings include two key tools.
Axiad Mesh enables large and mid-size enterprises to identify and quantify their risks at scale and then fortify identities against those risks.
Axiad Conductor enables organizations to orchestrate their authentication infrastructure, upgrade to phishing-resistant MFA, and move toward
passwordless authentication.
“Our platform delivers end-to-end credential lifecycle management: from issuance and use to renewal and revocation,” he said. “We verify trust before credentials are issued, and if something slips through, we detect and remediate it fast.”
Moran noted that Axiad is
FedRAMP-authorized, which allows it to sell to federal agencies and which he said “serves as the trust badge not only to clear the security requirements of the US Federal Government but also as an attestation for enterprises in critical operating environments.”
Partner Benefits
Through the new partner program, MSSPs and other channel players, such as resellers, OEMs, and system integrators, will be able to better use such tools. In addition, the program offers such benefits as deal registration initiatives, technical training, marketing resources, and co-selling support.
It’s a significant step for Axiad.
“We've worked closely with partners for years, but this is our first formalized program,” Moran said. “It’s built to scale, with the structure, tools, and incentives needed to empower partners and accelerate joint success.”
