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SEATTLE – May 8, 2012. WatchGuard® Technologies, a global leader in business security solutions, today announced that it is leading the charge to own the global virtual security market with the launch of its entire line of content and network security products as virtualized solutions. This now gives WatchGuard customers and channel partners an unparalleled offering of both hardware and virtual security solutions to best meet their business needs.

"For small and midsized businesses the cloud is real, and WatchGuard is ready to protect it," said Eric Aarrestad, Vice President of Marketing at WatchGuard Technologies. "Hardware-based security is great and will be the mainstay for many businesses. However, there are many businesses now that are taking advantage of virtualization. For them, WatchGuard will be in lock step to provide the best security offerings for virtual environments, too."

"We own and operate VMware vSphere clusters in multiple locations to serve our clients," said Todd A Blank, Founder of YourColo LLC, an Ohio based Managed Services Provider. "All components are best of breed, from end to end. We call it the "Data Power Station" model. The idea is to deliver a consistently fluid end user experience."

Blank continues, "While YourColo was recently designing and building a brand new DataPowerStation in Columbus Ohio, our goal was to be 100% virtual. To meet that goal, we evaluated many Virtual Security Appliances prior to WatchGuard's XTMv beta program. We were about to give up on the idea of virtualizing our security and content control. We had limited pieces of it in place, but not the whole picture. When we implemented XTMv in our lab, we were blown away by how right WatchGuard had gotten it! This fits our Multi-Tenancy models, and the needs of our clients who have HiPPA and SOX compliance challenges. The best part is, with WatchGuard's Virtual Appliances, we can meet multiple deployment and use requirements in the same vSphere cluster!"

"Where their competitors made sacrifices to fit into the virtual paradigm, WatchGuard exploited the virtual paradigm to its fullest to introduce products that actually improve on the capabilities, flexibility, and features of their physical incarnations," concludes Blank.

WatchGuard XTMv - Virtualized Extensible Threat Management

Four editions of XTMv are being launched to meet the needs of small, midsize and large-scale distributed environments. This includes, XTMv Small Office edition, Medium Office, Large Office and Datacenter. These virtual versions provide the same type of high security offered by WatchGuard XTM series hardware appliances, including Application Control, Reputation Enabled Defense, intrusion prevention, gateway anti-virus, web blocking traffic shaping, and more.

Because multiple instances of XTMv can run on a single vSphere hypervisor, the WatchGuard virtual appliance is ideal for managed security services providers (MSSPs), hosting providers, and larger IT organizations who wish to run separate logical firewalls on the same host system.

Furthermore, because the WatchGuard XTMv series can manage traffic passing within the virtual infrastructure, and even across internal networks between virtual machines in the same cluster or on the same server, XTMv is well suited to implement security policies between applications, user communities or tenants. Even in small offices with a single server running consolidated workloads, an instance of XTMv can be run on the same server to protect the full server consolidation environment.

WatchGuard XCSv - Extensible Content, DLP, Web and Email Security Now Virtualized

Like the XTMv offerings, four editions of XCSv are now available, which includes XCSv Small Office edition, Medium Office, Large Office and Large Office XC. These virtual versions provide the same level of web content, DLP, email and messaging security offered by WatchGuard XCS hardware appliances, including advanced anti-spam and malware protection, zero-hour threat outbreak response and easy to use management and reporting features.

Because the WatchGuard XCSv series can be deployed adjacent to messaging and web servers within the virtual infrastructure, and even across internal networks between virtual machines in the same cluster or on the same server, XCSv is well suited to implement web and messaging security policies between domains, applications, user communities or tenants. Even in small offices with a single server running consolidated workloads, an instance of XCSv can be run on the same server to provide web, DLP, email and messaging security.