Written 19 Oct 2026 by us from the facts below. These are judgements and can be wrong. Each one lists the facts it rests on.
FOUND-F · What the best peers do
Five of the nineteen peers whose robots.txt we could read name AI crawlers one by one. Zscaler names nine and Check Point eight. They decide who comes in, instead of leaving it to a catch-all rule. A mid-size company can do the same in ten minutes: list the AI crawlers you welcome, and say so in robots.txt.
Based on: zscaler.robots.ai_crawlers_named, checkpoint.robots.ai_crawlers_named, cloudflare.robots.ai_crawlers_named, paloaltonetworks.robots.ai_crawlers_named, fortinet.robots.ai_crawlers_named
FOUND-F · A gap
Access can fail without anyone noticing. Fortinet lets named AI crawlers in but closes the site to every crawler it does not name, which includes ours. Freshworks answered our reader's home page with a block (HTTP 403) and ServiceNow refused even robots.txt. Test your own site with an unnamed crawler, and check what your bot-protection tool does to well-behaved readers.
Based on: fortinet.robots.allows_our_crawler, fortinet.robots.ai_crawlers_blocked_at_root, freshworks.home.source, servicenow.robots.source
FOUND-F, FOUND-D · A gap
On FOUND Score v1.0 every letter and the overall score run from 0 to 100, with no ceiling. The 20 listed peers we could score sit between 61 (Freshworks) and 86 (Cloudflare), and Findable runs from 48 (MongoDB) to 88 (CrowdStrike and Cloudflare). The calibration anchors Google, Microsoft and OpenAI score 86, 79 and 75 and are not ranked. What would separate the peers further is what AI actually says about each and whether a person judges it right. That needs repeated sampling, not more page checks.
Based on: score:tenable.F, score:checkpoint.F, score:crowdstrike.F, score:freshworks.F, score:cloudflare.F, score:mongodb.F
FOUND-F, DRONICS-O · A gap
llms.txt is common among peers (15 of the 18 where we could read it), so having one is no longer a difference. The difference is what is in it: Salesforce points to free training courses, Freshworks says it is a site guide for AI systems. SentinelOne, Snowflake and DigitalOcean answered 404.
Based on: crowdstrike.llms.present, freshworks.llms.first_line, salesforce.llms.first_line, sentinelone.llms.source, snowflake.llms.source, digitalocean.llms.source
DRONICS-R, FOUND-N · What the best peers do
Eight security peers have a listing in CRN's 2026 Partner Program Guide 5-Star security page: Zscaler, Palo Alto Networks, Fortinet, SentinelOne, Cloudflare, Tenable, Qualys and Check Point. ServiceNow is listed on the software page. It is the channel's own trade press naming the partner programme, and it rewards a complete programme: training, resources, support and clear communication.
Based on: zscaler.award:crn-ppg-security-2026.listed_as_entry, paloaltonetworks.award:crn-ppg-security-2026.listed_as_entry, fortinet.award:crn-ppg-security-2026.listed_as_entry, sentinelone.award:crn-ppg-security-2026.listed_as_entry, cloudflare.award:crn-ppg-security-2026.listed_as_entry, tenable.award:crn-ppg-security-2026.listed_as_entry, qualys.award:crn-ppg-security-2026.listed_as_entry, checkpoint.award:crn-ppg-security-2026.listed_as_entry
DRONICS-R, FOUND-N · Where a mid-size company can win
Qualys and Tenable are not the largest names here, yet both are listed as 5-Star programmes. The guide is application-based and the criteria are public, so a mid-size vendor can earn it with a complete partner programme and does not need scale. Note: absence of a name from a list we read can mean 'did not apply'.
Based on: qualys.award:crn-ppg-security-2026.listed_as_entry, tenable.award:crn-ppg-security-2026.listed_as_entry
FOUND-N · A gap
Recognition is uneven. Datadog, Snowflake, Atlassian, MongoDB and DigitalOcean are not listed on any of the award list pages we read. That says nothing about their quality: most programmes are entry-based, and several list pages could not be read in full. It does show how rarely a company is named by someone else on a page a machine can find.
Based on: datadog.award:crn-ppg-security-2026.listed_as_entry, atlassian.award:crn-ppg-software-2026.listed_as_entry, mongodb.award:crn-ppg-software-2026.listed_as_entry, digitalocean.award:stevie-sales-2026.listed_as_entry, snowflake.award:crn-ppg-software-2026.listed_as_entry
FOUND-N · What the best peers do
Several peers keep a dedicated page for analyst reports or recognition: Tenable (two pages, analyst and awards), Zscaler, Rapid7, SentinelOne, Cloudflare and Salesforce. It gives a reader, and a crawler, one place to check the claims. It is still the company speaking about itself, so we count it as self-published until the awarder's page is read.
Based on: tenable.page:analyst.title, tenable.page:awards.title, zscaler.page:analyst.title, rapid7.page:awards.title, sentinelone.page:recognition.title, cloudflare.page:analysts.title, salesforce.page:analyst.title
DRONICS-C, DRONICS-S · What the best peers do
Free training and certification is a standard part of the partner and customer story. CrowdStrike, Okta, Snowflake, Palo Alto Networks and Zscaler each have a certification or academy page, and CrowdStrike's annual report says it offers training and certification to customers and partners. Training makes a partner more able to sell and a customer more able to stay.
Based on: crowdstrike.page:academy.title, okta.page:certification.title, snowflake.page:certifications.title, paloaltonetworks.page:education.title, zscaler.page:academy.title, crowdstrike.edgar-annual-text.certification_training.0
DRONICS-I, DRONICS-C · What the best peers do
The big names own a flagship event and say so in their annual report: Okta calls Oktane a centerpiece of its marketing strategy, HubSpot has INBOUND, CrowdStrike Fal.Con and Zscaler Zenith Live. A mid-size company can copy the shape at a smaller size: customers telling their own stories.
Based on: okta.edgar-annual-text.events.0, hubspot.edgar-annual-text.events.0, crowdstrike.edgar-annual-text.events.0, zscaler.edgar-annual-text.events.0
DRONICS-N · What the best peers do
Cloud marketplaces are named as a route to market. CrowdStrike sells through the AWS Marketplace, Okta has its integration network and an Auth0 marketplace, and SentinelOne, HubSpot and DigitalOcean each have a marketplace page. For a mid-size company, a listing lets buyers use committed cloud spend.
Based on: crowdstrike.edgar-annual-text.marketplace.1, okta.edgar-annual-text.marketplace.0, sentinelone.page:marketplace.title, hubspot.page:marketplace.title, digitalocean.page:marketplace.title
FOUND-O · A gap
Review proof is hard for a machine to see on a home page. Of the peers whose home page we could read, only Tenable shows review-site links the home-page check could find. Under FOUND Score v1.0 Opinions also counts review listings found on the review sites themselves and by live search, so it runs from 40 (Atlassian) to 76 (Cloudflare and Salesforce) of 100, and it is still the lowest letter for 15 of the 20 scored peers. Peers put proof on customer pages, which we read but cannot judge. For a mid-size company, a clear link to reviews on the home page is a cheap, visible step.
Based on: score:tenable.O, score:crowdstrike.O, score:hubspot.O, score:salesforce.O, score:atlassian.O, score:cloudflare.O
FOUND-U · Where a mid-size company can win
Structured data is uneven. HubSpot and CrowdStrike mark up a Product, while Datadog, Palo Alto Networks, Snowflake and DigitalOcean showed no JSON-LD on the home page we read. A few lines of schema.org on the home and product pages is a cheap way to be understood by machines.
Based on: hubspot.home.jsonld_types, crowdstrike.home.jsonld_types, datadog.home.jsonld_types, paloaltonetworks.home.jsonld_types, snowflake.home.jsonld_types
DRONICS-D, FOUND-U · Where a mid-size company can win
Home-page headlines are often slogans. Snowflake's is 'Code Work' and Palo Alto Networks' is 'Ask. Remediate. Optimize.' Rapid7's 'The Preemptive MDR Leader that Outpaces Attackers' and Zscaler's 'Zero trust architecture beats AI threats' name the category. A mid-size company with a clear category word in its first line is easier for people and AI to place.
Based on: snowflake.home.h1, paloaltonetworks.home.h1, rapid7.home.h1, zscaler.home.h1
FOUND-F, FOUND-N · A gap
In one Perplexity sample (ten category questions that did not name any company), Palo Alto Networks was named in three answers, and CrowdStrike, Check Point, Zscaler and Fortinet in two each. Atlassian, MongoDB and ServiceNow were named in none, but we did not ask a question aimed at their category, so read this as a snapshot, not a ranking.
Based on: score:paloaltonetworks.F, score:crowdstrike.F