Growing MSP Partners with WatchGuard to Deliver Comprehensive, Unified Security
Challenge
Central IT Solutions was launched in 2006 by Managing Director Steve Cole and Operations Director Andre Campbell. The company is a well-established MSP supporting small to medium businesses in and around the West Midlands. The company experienced steady growth due to the demand in remote working when Central IT Solutions helped organisations adapt to the new working environment. Today, Central IT Solutions provides a full range of IT support services, with a specific focus and expertise in cybersecurity solutions.
Central had been a long-term partner of another cybersecurity vendor for many years, but increasingly felt its support was lacklustre. Due to poor service deliverables, Central began searching for an alternative partner that could support their growth aspirations. Recognising the growing need among SMEs for more robust cybersecurity, the company realised the benefits of partnering with WatchGuard to help it on its journey towards becoming an MSSP and delivering a more robust, reliable suite of cybersecurity services to the SME market.
Craig Jones, Central’s service delivery director, said: “We’ve gone through the challenge of trying different security providers. We were with another company for quite a long time, but there were several incidents that led us to want to look elsewhere. We heard good things about WatchGuard at an industry event, and our MD, a network guy at heart, decided to trial a WatchGuard firewall, and fell in love with its simplicity, ease of use, and reliability…and the rest is history.” Due to their positive response to trialing WatchGuard firewalls, Central took this opportunity to understand more about the wider WatchGuard portfolio and capabilities.
The Solution
After deciding to partner with WatchGuard, Central worked hard to form a strong partnership and aligned new customers with WatchGuard’s suite of products. After only a short period of time, Central achieved Gold partner status by completing both technical and sales certifications. In addition to consolidating on the WatchGuard Firebox for their firewall clients, Central is migrating their endpoint customers to WatchGuard Endpoint Detection & Response (EPDR) due to the features, capabilities, and ease of management.
Alongside EPDR, Central, mindful of the need for comprehensive security at smaller companies with limited internal IT capabilities and lower budgets, is also deploying WatchGuard’s Managed Detection and Response (MDR) to provide 24/7 protection for their customers.
After hearing about the launch of WatchGuard MDR via their account manager and attending an MDR briefing event, Central decided to trial the service internally to evaluate the offering. They were impressed with the response from the WatchGuard MDR team when isolating an internal device which provided Central with the confidence to start delivering the service to their clients.
The Results
Today, Central manages over 1,400 WatchGuard EPDR endpoints in WatchGuard Cloud. “The migration to WatchGuard EPDR has been seamless, which is crucial for our clients who cannot afford any downtime,” said Craig Jones. Equally, the management platform’s ease of use for both Endpoint Security and the WatchGuard firewalls has made configuration and tasks, including site-to-site VPNs, simple and efficient.
Craig Jones added, “One of the key benefits of moving over to WatchGuard is their excellent level of customer support. Their support has been incredible with fast responses from a skilled, competent team.”
For Central, one of the key elements of a successful partnership is the strength of the relationship with their vendor partners. “Our account manager has been very supportive and has helped us to win specific deals and projects by being very responsive and by supporting us in attending customer meetings,” said Craig Jones.
Today, Central IT Solutions provide a comprehensive suite of products and services from the WatchGuard portfolio, including rackmount and tabletop firewalls, AuthPoint multi-factor authentication, Patch Management, EPDR, and more recently, WatchGuard Managed Detection & Response (MDR), for which they were one of the first partners to provide in the UK.
Craig Jones added, “The breadth and depth of the WatchGuard portfolio gives us confidence and has helped us to win new business, including the implementation of WatchGuard Managed Detection & Response, which enables us to deliver 24/7 protection to our customers.”
And while Central only advises customers on potential solutions, Craig says WatchGuard products sell themselves when the benefits – such as ease of use, simplicity, and reliable support – are explained. And from the company’s perspective, WatchGuard’s support of their business is exemplary.
Craig explains: “It’s like night and day compared to our previous partner. WatchGuard is extremely supportive, and it’s gratifying to know that competent people are only a call away, to quickly resolve any issues, even though we haven’t really had to call on them. The comprehensive training and onboarding were excellent too, and we feel fully supported by WatchGuard.”
Craig Jones concluded by saying, “WatchGuard gives us confidence in both their portfolio of unified cybersecurity solutions and in their people, which is a crucial part of our relationship.”