Alkira Connect will build profit for partners while taking aim at the legacy networking resale model that isn’t working in the world of complex networking and AI infrastructure, the company’s director of global channels, Doug Houghton, tells CRN.
Four years after the launch of its partner program, network infrastructure-as-a-service specialist Alkira is rolling out Connect, a completely overhauled channel program aimed at helping partners grow their services revenues in light of increasing demands on enterprise networking thanks to AI.
The time for the new program is now because legacy networking models aren’t keeping pace with enterprise cloud and AI demands, Alkira’s director of global channels, Doug Houghton, told CRN.
“AI is impacting everyone in our space. Legacy networks don’t accommodate the elasticity that an AI application needs, from distributed LLMs to all of the different agentic agents that are sitting in different places,” he said. “We’re the only networking solution that can address those needs in real time with the sort of elasticity that AI or anything that’s going to come after it [such as] quantum. I look at us as future-proofing your network and providing a platform where our customers, because it’s an open ecosystem, can take the services that they have and very quickly integrate those into a high throughput, low latency, global backbone that we deliver as a service.”
Connect was built with partner profit at the forefront and includes tiered margins, quarterly rebates, MDF, and SPIFFs to help global system integrators, MSPs, and AI-focused partners attach high-margin services on every deal as opposed to reselling product, Houghton said.
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The new program includes three tiers: Apex, Premier, and Authorized, Houghton said. Alkira in the Connect program is increasing margin for the Apex, or top tier, he added.
Though so-called Connect Services Attach Plays as part of the new program, partners will be able to standardize and scale high-margin offerings such as network modernization assessments, segmentation and compliance design, and migration, the company said.
“Part of the genesis of building out the Connect partner program is to enable [partners] and diversify our own partner ecosystem to drive our solution into more places to solve the big network modernization problems that people are facing as AI becomes more ubiquitous,” said Houghton (pictured above).
The company has been experiencing record-breaking growth driven by strong partner momentum over the last two years. Alkira’s partner program now includes 1,000 partners, with more than 150 partners driving more than 40 percent of total company revenue. Alkira said that “seven-figure partner commissions” are being paid out.
San Jose, Calif.-based Alkira emerged from stealth mode nearly six years ago with its consumption-based Cloud Services Exchange (CSX), a unified, on-demand offering that lets cloud architects and network engineers build and deploy a multi-cloud network in minutes. Its approach to networking has only grown in popularity as partners are increasingly displacing legacy networking hardware providers because their end clients are seeking more agile and scalable networking offerings, according to Alkira.
Connect is expected to drive significant growth for Alkira and Houghton has a goal of doubling revenue through partners, he said.
“We designed the Alkira Connect partner program to incentivize those folks who have made large investments in us and to provide additional professional services, so they can grow their gross margin, which is exciting,” he said. “We are almost every week seeing a new network modernization RFP. Our partners who are better equipped to address those use cases are going to win Alkira, so get in the fight.”
Alkira closed its first Fortune 10 customer in 2025. Last year, the company saw a 1,300 percent growth rate in Latin America, with expansion underway in Canada, Australia, the EU, UK, Middle East, and China, Alkira told CRN.
