Distributor Wick Hill has kicked off a VAR recruitment drive on behalf of Watchguard following the vendor’s recent push to improve its prices and performance.

The suggested retail price of Watchguard’s Firebox Core 1250e unified threat management bundle for mid-size to large enterprises has been cut, while throughput has risen fivefold to nearly 1,500Mbit/s. Watchguard’s Firebox X Core 750e appliance, aimed at growing SMEs, has seen a similar drop in price and improvement in performance.

Ian Kilpatrick, chairman of Wick Hill, said: “We are looking to sign up about 30 significant partners between now and the end of March. Watchguard is now price competitive against all its rivals and we

are planning to take that message to the market.”

Matt Tomlinson, commercial director at Watchguard Expert partner MIS CDS, said: “Juniper has ripped up the firewall price book and started again with its SSG appliance. The other firewall vendors have had to respond accordingly.”