WatchGuard Expands Flexible Payment Options

Security vendor WatchGuard on Tuesday said it’s expanding its flexible payment option that allows partners to buy security hardware and services with a monthly subscription.

WatchGuard Subscription is a pay-as-you-go option that expands the vendor’s current FlexPay program that offers one- and three-year fixed term contracts and MSSP prepaid points.

WatchGuard’s Michelle Welch

“MSPs and resellers are increasingly leveraging monthly, pay-as-you-go options for their customers because so few vendors and distributors offer compatible purchasing structures, they’re often faced with capital bottlenecks and cash flow issues,” said Michelle Welch, senior vice president of marketing at WatchGuard. “As a 100% channel-focused company that’s dedicated to partner support and enablement, the new WatchGuard Subscriptions offering is designed to further simplify, streamline and strengthen how our partners do business with WatchGuard and meet their customers’ security needs.”

The subscription option is available for tabletop and rackmount Fireboxes and WatchGuard security services. The vendor offers a comprehensive portfolio of security services, such as intrusion prevention, gateway antivirus, application control, spam prevention and URL filtering, protection against malware, ransomware and data breaches. These services integrate with a WatchGuard Firebox appliance.

The vendor expects that the new subscription option will appeal to IT solution providers looking to avoid opex or leasing solutions and fixed-term contracts that limit scalability. WatchGuard is making its subscription option for products and services available in the U.S. through the Synnex Stellr marketplace. Synnex rebranded its cloud/mobility business unit to Stellr last May. WatchGuard will expand subscriptions to other regions throughout 2020.

Also last May, WatchGuard expanded its WatchGuardOne partner program, offering multiple paths of entry with individual specializations in network security, secure Wi-Fi and multifactor authentication (MFA). This latest option expands the vendor’s routes to partnership for VARs and MSPs.