Gartner UTM Magic Quadrant Leader 2012

Since the first Gartner UTM Magic Quadrant, published in 2009, WatchGuard has always been placed in the “Leader” quadrant.

The UTM Magic Quadrant differs from the Next-Generation Firewall (NFGFW) because it specifically looks at the multifunctional capabilities of a UTM (Unified Threat Management appliance), and not just the three services of a NGFW (Firewall, IPS and Application Control). With this in mind, the outcome of the Gartner report on the UTM is based on multifunction capabilities of a UTM, ease of use and strong security.

With the release of the Gartner report for 2012, it shows that WatchGuard is still providing strong security and ease of use. Gartner notes that WatchGuard still has the highest rate of multiple features available in the market. This includes Firewall, Intrusion Prevention Service, Gateway AntiVirus, Application Control, WebBloker, spamBlocker, Reputation Enabled Defense and LiveSecurity. WatchGuard products are highly reliable with solid support locally and internationally, thus leading WatchGuard to move and advance more than anyone else into the Magic Quadrant of the Gartner UTM Report.

WatchGuard's Extensible Threat Management (XTM) Network Security Appliances caters for any sized company, from small to enterprise. The extensive reports include on the box and per-user reports, to name a few. WatchGuard integrates with LDAP and Active Directory, allowing rules to be set up per user, group or job description. Due to this functionality, users can do transparent Active Directory authentication (single sign-on) that reports on users and activities.

Included with WatchGuard's XTM appliances is the WatchGuard System Manager (WSM). The system manager is an easy-to-use, centralised console that provides interactive real-time logging and monitoring for network system status, which includes drag-and-drop VPN creations, and the richest historical reporting available. The logging and reporting on the WatchGuard XTM device includes a Web-based configurable report portal, and enables users to export reports to HTML and PDF. Advanced OS Networking features give users the freedom to do policy-based routing, multi-WAN failover and high availability (active/passive and active/active) for clustering.

WatchGuard continues its leadership position in the Gartner Magic Quadrant due to the company's most secure service on a UTM.

Latest from WatchGuard:

WatchGuard introduces WatchGuard XCSv and XTMv, a new virtualised security solution. Designed for VMware virtualised environments, the new WatchGuard XCSv and XTMv series of appliances provides unparalleled security for networks, Web content, e-mail and messaging security, and protection of applications and data.

Because multiple instances of XCSv can run on a single vSphere hypervisor, the WatchGuard virtual appliance is ideal for managed security service providers (MSSPs), hosting providers and larger IT organisations that wish to run separate logical XCS Web security and content gateways on the same host system.

WatchGuard XTMv series can manage traffic passing within the virtual infrastructure and across internal networks between virtual machines in the same cluster or on the same server; thus XTMv is well suited to implement security policies between applications, user communities or tenants. WatchGuard XTMv will be initially supported on VMware vSphere.