WatchGuard Launches Upgrades For Appliance Line

The program, which was announced Monday morning, enables customers of the Seattle-based company's Firebox X product line to scale their existing appliances without costly and time-consuming hardware replacements.

According to WatchGuard CEO Steve Moore, upgrades were expected to be available through the company's channel partners immediately.

"Response to the Firebox X from both channel partners and ... customers has been extremely positive," Moore said. "We've made it as painless as possible to adapt [our solution] against emerging threats."

The program is targeted at small- and midsize-business customers. Through resellers, SMB customers can purchase a Firebox X500 and upgrade it to a Firebox X700, X1000 or X2500 model by applying the license key. The upgrades were expected to range in price from $969 (to upgrade from Firebox X500 to X700) to $3,999 (to upgrade from Firebox X500 to X2500).

In addition to the model upgrade capabilities, WatchGuard also released a three-port upgrade option for the Firebox X. This particular upgrade doubles the amount of active network ports from three to six on all models in the line. Moore said the increased capacity would enable organizations to use the Firebox X to monitor security on the perimeter and inside the LAN.

The three-port upgrade was scheduled to cost $599.