NEC XON Cyber wins Palo Alto Networks Sub-Saharan Africa Partner of the Year award

Justin Lee, Regional Sales Director at Palo Alto Networks. (Image: NEC XON)

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NEC XON Cyber has been named Palo Alto Networks Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) Partner of the Year, recognising the company as the region’s top-performing partner for 2025. The award was presented at Palo Alto Networks’ recent annual partner gathering in Istanbul, Turkey.

The SSA Partner of the Year Award honours the partner that demonstrates outstanding growth, technical innovation and customer impact. NEC XON was selected from a highly competitive field of partners across sub-Saharan Africa less than two years after restarting its Palo Alto Networks programme under new leadership.

Justin Lee, Regional Sales Director at Palo Alto Networks, comments: "NEC XON’s recognition as our Sub-Saharan Africa Partner of the Year reflects the impact of our partnership: proven expertise, relentless execution and outcomes that matter for customers. Together with Palo Alto Networks, NEC XON is helping organisations across the region stop threats faster, simplify security operations and build a resilient digital future."

Armand Kruger, Head of Cybersecurity at NEC XON. (Image: NEC XON)

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Criteria for the award included:

• Enablement and engagement: Driving customer adoption and skills transfer.
• Technical innovation: Delivering advanced, integrated solutions.
• Financial performance: Achieving strong growth while ensuring measurable outcomes.

“This award validates our platform-led approach to cyber security,” says Armand Kruger, Head of Cybersecurity at NEC XON. “Achieving Diamond Partner status with five specialisations, pioneering XMDR services and consolidating end-to-end security platforms has enabled us to deliver measurable results for our customers. We are deeply honoured to be recognised by Palo Alto Networks and remain committed to helping organisations across Africa build secure, resilient digital futures.”

• Recent client successes highlight NEC XON’s impact. A major financial institution was struggling with tool sprawl and escalating software costs. By consolidating multiple point products into Palo Alto’s integrated platform (Next-Gen Firewalls, Prisma SASE, Cortex XDR), NEC XON Cyber helped the client reduce software spend by 28%, cut security triage time by 54% and streamline operations with fewer consoles and more automation. This transformation turned cyber security into a measurable ROI driver instead of a growing cost centre.
• When a leading telco came under ransomware attack, NEC XON Cyber’s Cortex XDR-powered MDR service detected and contained the threat within minutes. The attempted encryption was stopped before spreading, no customer data was compromised and business continuity was maintained without downtime or financial loss. This showcased the value of proactive monitoring and rapid incident response at scale.

“The SSA Partner of the Year Award is more than a trophy – it’s Palo Alto Networks’ public endorsement of the most capable, trusted partner in sub-Saharan Africa,” Kruger adds. “It validates that NEC XON is not only delivering on revenue and growth targets, but also meeting the highest global standards of technical expertise, innovation and customer success.”

Looking ahead, NEC XON Cyber will build on this achievement by scaling its MDR and XMDR capabilities to more customers across sub-Saharan Africa, driving adoption of Palo Alto’s consolidated, platform-led security model and growing regional cyber security expertise through training, certification and skills development.