WatchGuard Technologies Acquires MDR Provider ActZero

WatchGuard Technologies is buying ActZero, a provider of managed detection and response (MDR) services with automated threat response and cross-platform AI-driven threat analysis.

ActZero’s people and services will enhance WatchGuard MDR, further extending its Unified Security Platform, the company said. This acquisition will benefit MSPs with operational efficiency gains, according to WatchGuard Technologies.

Andrew Young, chief product officer and senior vice president of product management at WatchGuard Technologies, said integration with ActZero will make his company’s MDR service even more effective, benefitting current customers and partners with “exciting” new MDR services and features.

WatchGuard's Andrew Young

“ActZero’s technology and teams will become the foundation of the WatchGuard MDR product line while bringing enhanced features, including reporting, cyber hygiene and compliance tracking,” he said. “This acquisition benefits our partners by improving MDR service capabilities so that we scale and upgrade our customer success function with new onboarding processes and communications from security operations center (SOC) analysts."

Young said WatchGuard will quickly add new services with this acquisition, including managed fireboxes and security with open third-party products.

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"And with the addition of three new SOCs around the globe staffed with security experts, we’ve improved our trajectory to offer faster global response times and accelerated roadmap delivery of future products," said Young.

Options for WatchGuard Technologies MDR

WatchGuard Technologies originally launched an MDR service focused on final delivery by the partner, and while that will remain its primary focus, some partners have requested the vendor provide certain MDR capabilities on their behalf directly to their customers, Young said.

“ActZero gives us scale to do so and thus meet our partners’ needs across the spectrum of their capabilities so that all of their clients can benefit from advanced security protection,” he said.

The ability to add an MDR offering to their portfolios without having to create their own SOC is a “huge” advantage for partners, Young said.

“Many MSPs want to offer advanced MDR services to best protect clients, but may struggle to scale up a SOC and drive efficiency through automation,” he said. “Vendor-originated MDR services like WatchGuard MDR enable MSPs to scale and grow to meet client demands for reduced risks from cybersecurity incidents.”

WatchGuard Technologies is 100% channel, and with its acquisition of ActZero, it further builds on that commitment, accelerating the timeline for automation and AI capabilities within its existing MDR solutions, Young said.

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“WatchGuard’s MDR strategy has always centered around bringing enterprise-grade protection and ease of use to organizations of any size and the partners that support them,” he said. “To achieve this, we've created a service that is easy to deploy, flexible and cost-efficient for our channel partners. Our acquisition of ActZero allows us to add further capacity, scalability and new technology that will enable our MDR service to expand to the full WatchGuard portfolio and third-party security products.”

More MSP-Enabling Services

WatchGuard Technologies said ActZero advances its mission to deliver more MSP-enabling services with:

“By joining forces with the ActZero team, we’re combining the strengths of two innovative cybersecurity leaders to deliver even more value to our respective partners and customers,” Young said. “WatchGuard will continue to support existing ActZero customers and partners with the current ActZero service offering. Once WatchGuard technology is integrated with the ActZero platform, WatchGuard partners and customers will be able to receive enhanced services from the combined platform. We're thrilled to be partnering with ActZero, marking the beginning of an incredible chapter for all of us.”

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“I’d like to thank and congratulate the entire ActZero team,” said Sameer Bhalotra, ActZero’s CEO and co-founder. “By integrating with WatchGuard, the team’s efforts in creating an AI-powered MDR solution with expert analysis will expand worldwide and provide unmatched protection against cyber threats. I look forward to seeing all this team will accomplish with WatchGuard while continuing the company’s legacy of empowering MSPs with a powerful, unified MDR solution.”