The latest announcement from channel-focused security vendor WatchGuard aims to bring a fully-supported MDR offering to MSPs trying to stay competitive in a complex market. Channel Insider spoke with Hal Libby, WatchGuard’s general manager of managed services, to learn more about the new service.
New MDR solution encompasses breadth of WatchGuard security solutions
The new offering combines WatchGuard’s solutions into a single portal experience, encompassing traditional Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR), endpoint protection, detection, and response (EPDR), advanced EDPR, Firebox firewalls, AuthPoint identity controls, and network detection and response (NDR).
According to information released by the company, WatchGuard Total MDR provides MSPs:
- The Opportunity to Save Time and Scale with Outsourced Support: Total MDR frees up MSPs’ time by providing managed detection and response across the entire WatchGuard stack, offering powerful, precise, and accessible solutions that help them grow and scale their business faster.
- Efficient Threat Management: AI-driven threat management reduces false positives to fewer than one per day, minimizing alert fatigue, and addresses critical threats in under six minutes. Plus, proven low noise ratio in MITRE 2024, an industry-recognized cybersecurity benchmark.
- Expert Guidance: Total MDR is a fully managed detection and response service built for partners. It includes 24/7 SOC coverage and access to technical account managers who provide ongoing threat insights, escalation support, and adaptable runbooks to deliver the right level of guidance tailored to your services and business model.
- Accessible Pricing: MSPs will receive affordable, transparent pricing with enterprise-grade capabilities that include advanced features without hidden costs. Total MDR is competitively priced and easy to license, making it a perfect fit for small businesses (SMBs) and budget-conscious buyers.
- Quick Onboarding: This solution is specifically designed for partners serving SMB and mid-market clients, ensuring a streamlined onboarding process that eliminates the complexity of deep technical management and delivers faster time-to-value. Partners also receive access to technical account managers who stay involved following deployment to provide ongoing threat intelligence and strategic support.
The company’s announcement also states that its Total MDR offering reduces detection and response times to an average of six minutes—an 80% decrease from the industry average of 30 minutes—with fewer than one false positive per month on average, compared to the typical over 250 false positives per month.
“This shows the power of the full portfolio wrapped into a service that many of our partners have been asking for,” said Libby. “We’ve heard our partners, and we have brought them MDR in a way that means they can offer this confidently with our team backing them up.”
The new offering is also the first launched by the acquired ActZero team following the announcement of that deal earlier this year. Libby himself co-founded ActZero and says this marks an enhanced way of thinking about MDR than what his company offered before the acquisition.
“This is the first big milestone moment for us following the acquisition early this year, and it’s exciting to see it come to market,” Libby said. “WatchGuard has a really strong portfolio of solutions, and when we layer those, and the telemetry those solutions provide, into our team’s expertise in AI and managed services, we have created really a premier service that cuts response time and gives partners what they need to best support their customers.”
MDR becoming increasingly necessary as security risks grow larger by the day
WatchGuard’s announcement is in some ways the formalization of its ability to offer MDR resources to its partners. It comes as no surprise that a security vendor would move to offer a single pane of glass view into client security, as MSPs now more than ever find themselves acting as security and risk advisors on a variety of business objectives.
“The cybersecurity threat landscape is only becoming more advanced, creating gaps and concerns about potential vulnerabilities to rapid attacks. Standard SOC offerings are usually tailored for large enterprises and are not a fit for the economic reality of small businesses (SMBs),” said Julien Perret, the founder of Eiffie, a WatchGuard partner. “WatchGuard Total MDR is not only important for our clients, but it’s imperative as it acts as a customized virtual SOC, providing continuous threat intelligence, strategic guidance, and escalation support, enabling us to proactively defend against adversaries and attacks at an optimized cost.”
“I’ve talked with a lot of our partners this year who know they need to level up in their security but just can’t afford to run a global SOC, and security talent is incredibly hard to find,” Libby said. “But I don’t want partners to just give up or avoid security altogether, I want them to find a partner they can trust to deliver for their customers with the MSP as the focus.”
“We don’t want the credit to come to WatchGuard, we want the credit to go to the MSP. We’re just here to help the MSP as much as they need,” he continued.
The channel opportunity: How MSPs can leverage WatchGuard to drive more revenue
WatchGuard touts its MDR offering and much of its security suite as being tailored to the needs of MSPs. Its partners have found success not just in technical solutions but also in building recurring, long-term revenue streams with clients.
Libby wants to see that success continue, stating that the team’s goal with Total MDR is to better equip partners with what they need to serve their clients without requiring those partners to build costly resources in-house. Libby says his mission is to see partners drive successful security outcomes and make the margin they need to turn those outcomes into profit.
“I’m very excited to learn from our partners as they start leveraging the MDR now that it’s in market,” Libby said.
Total MDR will be added to over time as WatchGuard continues to release new solutions, with its SASE play coming soon.
In April, WatchGuard announced it was joining The Climate Pledge. Revisit our interview with Jay Lindenauer, the head of network security and executive sponsor of The Climate Pledge at WatchGuard, to learn more about the sustainability commitment.