Watchguard posts record quarter

Security appliance vendor Watchguard has recorded its best quarter in revenue after a strong showing in the enterprise market, said Scott Robertson, regional director, Australia and New Zealand.

The Peak product line and its recently released flagship XTM, the XTM1050, contributed 20 percent to revenue, said Robertson.

"We've been pushing our products successfully into the market. Enterprise customers are now looking at UTM and XTM as real solution for their environments," said Robertson.

Improvements in throughput have made UTMs and XTMs more attractive.

"Three or four years ago when UTM was becoming a product, extra services were throttling throughput at the firewall. Now messages coming into the network are not being choked by AV scans or spam scans," said Robertson.

Robertson also said the strong Australian dollar was having a positive effect on pricing, which has swung nearly 60 percent in the past year.

"Customers are now seeing products at a significant price point to 12 months ago. In the 12 month period we've seen the exchange rate go from 96 cents to 59 cents to 93 cents this morning," said Robertson.

"That's had a real impact on customer's budgets. We've seen over 110 percent growth in our expert partner category revenue," said Robertson.

Watchguard has two partner categories, Professional and the more qualified Expert level.
"We've seen a lot more growth through Watchgaurd certified partners. Across both Professional and Expert we've seen 73 percent growth," said Robertson.

Robertson pointed to the vendor's partner program revamp in April, which introduced a try-before-you-buy scheme, rebates, and increased sales and technical training, as a reason for better channel performance. The vendor has added eight partners since the revamp.

"The numbers we are posting at the moment speak to the success of the enhancements to the channel. We would like to take the opportunity to thank our partners," said Robertson.

Watchguard was gaining market share through competitive pricing, a broad range of services on the appliance including antivirus, IPS spam and content filtering, and a user-friendly interface, added Robertson. He estimated the vendor's market share at about 8 percent.

Watchguard plans to release its Borderware product line next year after it completes the acquisition of the Canadian email and web security appliance vendor.