"India is a unique, yet potential market for WatchGuard"

Scott Robertson
Vice President- APAC,
WatchGuard

Recognizing an unmet need for a security solution that addresses the rapidly-evolving threat landscape, WatchGuard has got solutions that deliver security, performance and rock-solid reliability at the same time for users ranging from SMEs to large distributed enterprises. The company’s broad portfolio delivers flexibility and deployment options that lets users decide who, what, when, why and how to defend a network using WatchGuard’s solutions. WatchGuard architected its high-throughput, highly scalable, and flexible Fireware operating system to form the backbone of its products. This platform yields dramatically higher performance at a much lower cost than competitors in environments where multiple security engines are enabled. The company’s enterprise range of solutions is getting wider acceptability and is witnessing exciting growth. As a result, WatchGuard’s team and the level of local investment continue to grow in 2014, and Scott Robertson, Vice-President – APAC, WatchGuard, expects this trend to continue in 2015 and beyond.
 
Top trends of enterprise UTM market
Cybercriminals are targeting network with a new generation of malware which is more advanced and persistent. The recent massive security breaches like Target Store have put network security on the boardroom agenda for CEOs. It has never been more critical for organizations to re-evaluate how they segment the network and ensure they have the right policies applied. As a result, UTM has evolved quickly to add additional security layers such as data loss prevention (DLP) and advanced persistent threat (APT) to ensure enterprise customers have the latest in security defenses available. Whether an enterprise chooses UTM or a subset as an NGFW it is critical to ensure gateway security is beefed up with the latest advances in network protection.
 
WatchGuard addressing Cloud computing space
Any business looking to leverage Cloud-based solutions must consider the inherent risk of hosting their data or technology in a remote location. Whether it be simply to retain control and security of traffic and data flowing between the corporate and cloud network or to ensure that adequate levels of defense are deployed to protect against "infected neighbours" that may be sharing a server or other equipment in a data center, the question of security remains and that is exactly where WatchGuard’s XTM and NGFW provide customers with that layer of control and management. If you are thinking cloud, think security first!
 
WatchGuard’s Solutions specifically for SMBs/SMEs
WatchGuard's product portfolio of UTM and NGFW security solutions cater to the needs of businesses of all sizes and across all verticals. Scott Robertson shares, “More recently, we have launched the Firebox T10 which is fully loaded and brings enterprise-level network security to small /home offices. In just a few months of its launch, T10 bagged multiple awards from reputed agencies with ‘best buy’ recommendations so we are confident this solution is well positioned for the SMB market.” There should be no reason for an SMB to compromise on the quality of security simply due to the size of their business and that is the exact market WatchGuard targeted with the Firebox T10. Interestingly, there are a number of enterprise businesses use the T10 for executive home office connections to ensure company-level security is maintained when connecting from home for busy executives.
 
WatchGuard’s Channel Ecosystem
WatchGuard has a network of 100+ partners across India closely working with them, out of which 50 are WatchGuard Secure Partners (WSPs) who have committed to technical and sales certifications and receive additional benefits. WatchGuard being a 100% channel-driven company, its partners assume great importance in the company’s ecosystem. Bringing more potential and committed partners on board and enabling them through regular hands-on trainings, webinars, knowledge sharing sessions is a continuous drive. Scott Robertson says, “We have been successfully running WatchGuard Secure Partner Program for years together.
Soon you will hear about WatchGuard unveiling a newly enhanced partner program which offers all that our partners need to stay one step ahead of the competition and make good margins. The Indian market is a potential market with very unique value proposition. We can understand the size of the Indian market to some extent, but we cannot understand the density and complexity of the Indian market.”
 
WatchGuard got recognition
The India market is important and WatchGuard recognized this by investing in local operations over a decade ago and its business continues to grow.  In the last few months alone, WatchGuard bagged more than ten prestigious recognitions from reputed media and analyst firms including Gartner, InfoTech Research, NSS Labs and Network Computing, to name a few.

satinder@varindia.com