WatchGuard swells channel with Panda partners
Three months after it completed the acquisition of endpoint player Panda Security, WatchGuard has significantly expanded its channel base
It has been three months since WatchGuard closed the deal for Panda Security, and the vendor is now in a position to provide all of its channel with access to the acquired portfolio.
The security vendor made a move to pick up Panda Security in March, with the deal closing in June. WatchGuard provided partners with the chance to join an early-access programme at that point to start evaluating and getting trained up on the products. A quarter of those in the vendor’s partner programme took advantage of that initiative.
In addition to getting its existing partners up to speed on Panda’s products there have also been efforts to reach out to those that worked with Panda.
Panda Security has been in business for 30 years and came to WatchGuard with a history that included periods of double- and single-tier channel approaches and an established base of resellers. More than 6,500 partners have been bought on board this year, increasing WatchGuard’s partner base by 50%.
Panda’s endpoint detection and response products have now been added to WatchGuard’s Passport, a bundle of user-centric security services, that will sit alongside its Total Security Suite.
“Opening this cross-sell opportunity for our partners quickly has been a major priority from day one, and it represents the latest milestone in WatchGuard’s ongoing mission to be the security provider for MSPs,” said Michelle Welch, senior vice-president of marketing at WatchGuard.
“We’re now one step closer to delivering a unified security platform that offers powerful, fully-integrated and easily administered defences for networks, endpoints and identities. Partners that want industry-leading, end-to-end security from a single vendor, with simplified purchasing, deployment and management, should look no further than the WatchGuardONE programme,” she added.
WatchGuard is also encouraging its own reseller base and Panda's channel partners to gain its latest specialisation in endpoint security, which has been added to network security, multi-factor authentication, and secure Wi-Fi as one of the specialisation options in its partner programme.
Stuart Hall, director of WatchGuard gold partner Kuiper Technology, said that it had been one of those that had signed up for the early-access programme and it had been able to integrate the products into its offering over the past few months.
“This represents a significant opportunity for us as a WatchGuard partner to further extend the delivery of industry leading, integrated cyber security solutions to protect our customers,” he said.
