WatchGuard Technologies hopes to have staff on the ground in New Zealand early next year as the business security vendor records record growth, doubling Kiwi revenue last quarter.

Patrick Devlin, WatchGuard Technologies regional director Australia and New Zealand, says WatchGuard has just posted a record quarter in ANZ, with New Zealand in particular performing well.

While the company does not disclose revenue, he says the ANZ business has been growing at around 12%, with New Zealand averaging 33%. “But New Zealand quarter on quarter was more like 100% growth last quarter.”

He says distributor Exeed is ‘doing a great job for us, but at some point in the new calendar year, hopefully sooner rather than later, I’d like to have one or two staff locally’.

The first member is likely to be an engineer, with a sales resource also possible. Devlin says the growth in the Kiwi market is coming off a strong education base.

The company is starting to get more corporate business as well, he adds. “We’re heading up the chain in terms of end users. The increasing focus on the corporate market means WatchGuard is also looking to recruit new partners capable of helping drive the company’s presence in the mid-market.

Devlin says most sales here are of the company’s full UTM suite. “That’s different to elsewhere. In North America and Europe we do a lot of firewalls, for example. But in this market almost everyone buys the full suite.”

Analysts suggest the UTM market growing at 14% globally. “We are outpacing that,” Devlin says. “The world is moving away from having to run everything on bespoke devices. That’s a message that’s resonating.” He says WatchGuard’s UTM offerings are also helping spur the company’s growth in some of the weakest economies, where businesses are seeking one solution to cover their security needs.

He says resellers are increasingly looking to move away from straight equipment sales with many actively building a security focus. “If you’re just reselling a product, you make the sale and walk away. And yes, you’ve made a profit. But it’s a couple of years before the customer reaches out again. We’re building programmes to help them have a regular touch point, to get away from resales to a regular annuity stream.”

Devlin says in the New Year WatchGuard will launch a combination of programmes and products providing enabling technology around that market shift.