Five reasons that continue to drive MSPs to WatchGuard

“This is the biggest opportunity that you can ever have right in front of you,” says Joe Smolarski, WatchGuard CEO.

WatchGuard kicked off its Impact Summit in Bali with about 120 partners from around the Asia Pacific region. The three-day partner summit provided the opportunity for partners to network and understand more about WatchGuard’s latest products and innovations in cybersecurity.

In his first keynote address in the region since taking over as CEO in November last year, Joe Smolarski shared five key reasons why partners enjoy working with WatchGuard and also what drives him to lead the cybersecurity vendor into stronger growth in the region and globally.

The first is WatchGuard provides enterprise-grade security that is simplified for managed service providers (MSPs) and the channel. Smolarski explained that while there are many great solutions in the market, they’re built for the enterprise and not simple for MSPs.

“They're not tailored to what you need to run an efficient business, and that's exactly what you get with WatchGuard. Our solutions work. When we say enterprise-grade, our solutions are protecting many of the governments throughout the world. They're protecting three-letter agencies in the United States that are protecting the United States. If you go around, we protect as many governments around the world as any security solution out there because it works. And that's why people rely on us,” he said.

The second reason is the affordability of WatchGuard’s products which are priced to protect all clients. Given that MSPs mostly serve the SMB market who want cost-effective solutions, Smolarski pointed out that many of them tend to make poor decisions of going unprotected because they simply don't believe that they can afford what they need from a security perspective.

“It's up to all of us to make sure that we get our price points to the level where we can protect every one of your clients at all levels of the security stack, and that's exactly what we've done,” he said.

This is the 100% dedication to the channel. Smolarski reiterated that everything WatchGuard does is 100% channel focused as its in the DNA of the company. WatchGuard does not sell direct to enterprises, nor do they build product for enterprises or go direct to customers.

“We never have. We never will. We at WatchGuard understand that your business is your life. It's what's protecting your family, your future and everything else, and we don't take that responsibility lightly,” he added.

The next reason is to provide a platform for cybersecurity. MSPs need a platformized approach to cybersecurity because there are just too many solutions for them to manage in the market today.

“You don't have the resources and the firepower to win in a market with point solutions because you just get overwhelmed. You get overwhelmed with unintegrated solutions that don't talk to each other, whereas with a WatchGuard, you stack the platform together. It works integrated across the board to give you the most efficient protection that you'll get anywhere to be found,” Smolarski said.

The last reason is WatchGuard’s history and legacy. Having been around for 30 years, Smolarski believes that this shows the stability and strength of the cybersecurity vendor compared to the many new players that get a hot sizzle but may not be around long enough as they end up being overwhelmed or acquired by bigger players.

Given these five reasons, Smolarski believes that partners will be able to get the best outcomes in their partnership with WatchGuard and also be able to provide customers with cybersecurity that is complete and affordable.

The SMB opportunity

Looking at the state of cybersecurity today, Smolarski pointed out that cybercrime is actually the largest economy globally with the US and China the only economies larger than cybercrime.

With 87% of cyberattacks now being AI-driven, the main targets are also no longer just enterprises but the SMBs, with 99% of the attacks occurring there. The problem here is most SMBs are unable to defend or recover against these cyberattacks.

“So, the good news is, unlike years ago, where you had to do so much convincing and education to SMB on the need for cybersecurity, you don't need to convince as much anymore. Everybody is afraid now. Everybody sees the business that went out of business down the street. Everybody's hearing about AI and the attacks and all the bad things that are happening that's out there. So, it's less convincing. They're already scared, and that's certainly a good thing and presents an unbelievable opportunity for us and certainly for you (partners),” he said.

According to Smolarski, the SMB market presents a great opportunity for partners, especially MSPs to go in with solid solutions and protect them from top to bottom.

“This is the biggest opportunity that you can ever have right in front of you,” he said.

For Smolarski, WatchGuard needs to be as complete as possible, given the fast pace of changes in the cybersecurity world. This is one of the reasons WatchGuard acquired Perimeters as they felt it would have taken too long to get it going. The acquisition was followed by the launch of WatchGuard Cloud Detection and Response, enabling cloud application security for MSPs.

Smolarski added that WatchGuard will be announcing another acquisition in October, with plans for another one in early 2027. All these acquisitions aim to strengthen the WatchGuard platform.

“You got to make sure cybersecurity is one problem. You cannot get away with point solutions. You have to make sure that you're covered at each area of the security stack, and that's what WatchGuard's here to do for you. The platform turns that security into value. Every single aspect of it. You're not getting six different alerts from six different systems. You're getting one alert when it matters, and you're getting things put to the background when we understand that it actually wasn't a security event because we correlated it across multiple pieces of the platform. We're driving value every single day,” he said.

To sum it up, Smolarski believes that WatchGuard has built one cohesive platform that is AI enabled for partners and that no one else has this.

“Nobody else has this. They have different pieces, but nobody has enterprise-grade security built for you. That's not going away. We're 30 years strong, and we'll be here for another 30 years to give you affordability at all levels for all clients,” he concluded.