gateprotect, a security vendor based in Hamburg, Germany, recently nailed down a deal with Spanish White Oak Software S.A. (WOSSA) to bring firewall and unified threat management (UTM) services to the Iberian Peninsula. For those that didn’t ace high school geography, the peninsula comprises Spain and Portugal, and extends into Gibraltar, portions of France, and Andorra. The deal is part of the German security firm’s plans to expand into Southern Europe and elsewhere.
WOSSA is selling services specifically based on gateprotect’s Command Center security appliance.
WOSSA is not itself an MSP as much as it is a company that helps MSPs. The company claims it can provision “all the elements that a systems integrator needs to grow into a True Service Provider. WOSSA was created from a group of professionals in IT with a large experience in the channel, along with a team of entrepreneurs on the Security services world,” the company said.
WOSSA has an array of programs to suit the needs of different types of MSP. All programs, however, are based on WOSSA’s Recurrent Business model, which provides security services on a pay-per-use basis.
WOSSA is apparently ready to roll with gateprotect. “With the Command Center from gateprotect, the virtual appliances and a pay-per-use model, we are able to offer our customers flexible and platform-neutral solutions,” said WOSSA’s Javier Abad.
The WOSSA deal offers a nice bit of expansion for gateprotect. “Thanks to the longstanding experience of WOSSA, the comprehensive synergy effects and our IT security solutions ‘made in Germany,’ optimal data protection and IT security have become affordable also for mid-sized customers. Especially the option of individually combining the most suitable IT security package and the pertaining services is of great interest to our partners,” said Dr. Peter Smeets, CEO of gateprotect.
The company already reached some 80 countries with its 24,000 current licenses.
The Gartner View
Gartner has had gateprotect in its Magic Quadrant for UTM firewall appliances since 2010, and the company has been in this market for over a decade.
“Overall, gateProtect's UTM models range from 1 Gbps to 18 Gbps of firewall throughput. All gateProtect appliances are also available as VMware images,” Gartner said.
On the plus side, Gartner likes gateprotect’s pricing and is a fan of its graphical user interface that reduces configuration mistakes.
On the downside, the company doesn’t have as much market reach or visibility as some of its competitors, and “has limited application awareness in firewall policies compared with competing offerings,” Gartner said.
Edited by
Alisen Downey
