WatchGuard rolls out updates to bring greater security to MSPs

WatchGuard Technologies has launched new capabilities for WatchGuard Cloud in a bid to further unify security services and streamline deployment for managed services providers (MSPs).

The updates include a new single, centralised interface for delivering and managing network security, advanced threat detection, MFA (Multi-Factor Authentication), and more.

Building on WatchGuard Cloud's centralised security visibility, MSP-specific management interface and advanced executive reporting, the latest version incorporates WatchGuard's ThreatSync features, advanced Firebox policy management capabilities and authentication policies that enable zero-trust.

MSPs can create policy templates for repeatable security deployments across many subscriber accounts. The platform also makes it simple to manage and report on Firebox security environments and AuthPoint MFA deployments from a single pane of glass, while its interface helps MSPs minimise administrative tasks and maximise productivity and profitability, WatchGuard states.

More specifically, key WatchGuard Cloud Platform Enhancements include:

Advanced network security policy management: WatchGuard enables policy creation and management with one-click security service implementations and pre-configured policies to deploy content scanning, network inspection, content filtering, and other services at scale.

WatchGuard Cloud policy templates can apply configurations to appliances across multiple tiers and tenants, enabling MSPs to quickly onboard new customers and scale deployments with group and company policies.

Additionally, WatchGuard's new approach to policy creation reduces the number of rules MSPs must manage. This makes implementing rule changes and auditing configurations faster, with less opportunity for mistakes.

Risk-based MFA for simplified zero-trust adoption: The new AuthPoint risk framework policies in WatchGuard Cloud improve identity management capabilities by providing customisable and flexible rules to configure users and devices based on level of risk.

With centralised management and repeatable, scalable policy implementation via WatchGuard Cloud, MSPs can manage zero-trust authentication policies across multiple customer deployments to prevent external threats and thwart potential data leaks from within, and more.

Today the risk framework includes network location policies, and WatchGuard will be building additional risk policies such as geofencing and correlated time policies into the service in 2021 and beyond, according to a statement.

Built-in end-to-end threat analysis: The platform leverages the ThreatSync service to unify threat intelligence, correlation and scoring across the WatchGuard security stack, from network to user.

WatchGuard's cloud-based telemetry alerts endpoints to attacks against the network and WatchGuard Firebox appliances to attacks against endpoints and specific users for automated remediation.

WatchGuard senior vice president of product management Andrew Young says, "Our vision for WatchGuard Cloud has always been to build a powerful, cloud-hosted security platform that directly supports the way MSPs do business and simplifies every aspect of security delivery for our partners.

"The latest edition brings new levels of simplicity, flexibility and scalability to security deployments, management and reporting.

"WatchGuard Cloud's continued evolution is lowering the barrier to entry for MSPs to add security to their portfolios and solidifying it as the management platform of choice for the security channel.

WatchGuard director of authentication Alex Cagnoni says, "Strong authentication has always been a fundamental component of security and today represents a core tenet of the growing zero-trust movement.

"Every organisation needs MFA protection that's not only powerful but intuitive and scalable to manage.

"This simplified approach to managing authentication within WatchGuard Cloud is the latest example of our continued investment in making MFA more secure, effective and easier to administer with AuthPoint.