WatchGuard IMPACT Partner Conference 2026: 7 New Security Solutions And AI Innovations MSPs Need To Know

After a year of bringing partners together across Latin America, Europe and APAC, WatchGuard's global IMPACT Partner Conference is live in Nashville.

During day one, WatchGuard’s CEO Joe Smolarski unveiled more than 6 new solutions and AI-powered product innovations, including new Rai agentic AI capabilities, expanded network management, a new mid-tier firewall security suite, and a powerful new Firebox built for smaller distributed environments.

WatchGuard’s security, networking and AI innovations aim at helping MSPs protect increasingly complex customer environments while building more scalable and profitable services. The three-day event is diving into the future of managed security, practical strategies for leveraging AI in your business, building deeper technical expertise across the tech stack and opportunities to grow your business in 2027.

“[The IMPACT Partner Conference] is an opportunity to see the services unpacked in more detail and what the roadmap is, where we’re going,” said Adrian Mazzocchetti, CEO and Founder, Simple Biz. “It gives us confidence to know what we can do with our customers and how all the products come together so that WatchGuard has got one holistic view over the security stack.”

WatchGuard CEO Joe Smolarski Sets The Vision For AI-Powered Security

In his “What’s New, What’s Next: Innovation in the Age of AI” keynote, WatchGuard CEO Joe Smolarski explored how AI is reshaping both the cyberthreat landscape and the opportunities for MSPs. He unveiled the next evolution of WatchGuard’s Rai AI workforce, including Rai Auditor for continuous security assessment, Rai Risk Insights for actionable risk intelligence, Hey Rai for interactive, agentic AI conversations, and Rai MCP for connecting AI-powered workflows across MSP operations. He also highlighted major investments across the Unified Security Platform, including a new mid-tier firewall security suite, deeper network visibility, expanded Shadow IT and AI discovery, and vulnerability scanning, all designed to help partners strengthen protection, simplify operations, and deliver greater value to customers.

Here’s a closer look at the day-one announcements.

Rai Set To Take On Critical MSP Work

WatchGuard continues to expand Rai, its agentic AI Digital Workforce for MSPs. The new release will introduce Hey Rai, for natural-language interaction, Rai Auditor for continuous security assessment, a more capable Rai Analyst with deeper incident intelligence, Rai Customer Success for customer-ready reporting, support guidance and Rai MCO for connections to compatible AI tools. Partners remain in control, choosing whether Rai takes autonomous actions, assists teams, or provides guidance for a human-led decision.

Prime Security Suite Creates An Opportunity for MSPs

Smolarski unveiled WatchGuard’s Prime Security Suite (PSS), a new mid-tier package that delivers advanced firewall protection beyond foundational security, giving organizations greater flexibility to choose the level of protection that best meets their security needs and budget.

PSS builds on the Basic Security Suite with APT Blocker for advanced malware prevention, DNSWatch for protection against malicious domains and phishing, Shadow AI detection to uncover unauthorized AI usage, enhanced WatchGuard Cloud visibility, and 90 days of log retention. It brings these capabilities together in a single, easy-to-manage package, delivering stronger protection without adding operational complexity.

Available now, PSS gives MSPs greater flexibility to match security to each customer’s needs and budget, while creating a natural upgrade path to Total Security Suite as those needs evolve.

Firebox T175 Designed For Smaller Offices And Distributed Sites

WatchGuard also introduced the powerful new Firebox T175. Designed for small offices, growing locations and distributed organizations, the T175 provides 2.35 Gbps of UTM Full Scan throughput, two 10G SFP+ ports and dual power inputs for high-availability deployments.

The appliance addresses a growing challenge for smaller sites: maintaining performance as more cloud applications, SaaS traffic, remote access and encrypted web traffic pass through security inspection. With general availability announced at the IMPACT Partner Conference, partners can now deliver a powerful new level of firewall performance and connectivity tailored to the needs and budgets of growing businesses and distributed sites.

Expanding the Platform: WatchGuard Switches - Coming Spring 2027

Coming Spring 2027, WatchGuard is expanding its Unified Security Platform by introducing WatchGuard switches to their portfolio. This offering will give partners new opportunities to grow their footprint within existing accounts, deliver a broader solution from a trusted vendor, and simplify network management for their customers.

By extending the platform beyond security and wireless, WatchGuard is helping partners reduce complexity, strengthen customer relationships, and capture more value across the network. More details on the switch portfolio, availability, and partner enablement through WatchGuardONE will be shared in the months leading up to launch.

Network Management Extends Visibility Across The Internal Network

WatchGuard’s new Network Management capabilities give MSPs a unified view of increasingly complex customer networks, including switches, routers, access points, servers, VPNs, IoT systems, and unmanaged devices.

Integrated into WatchGuard Cloud, the service enables MSPs to discover and map connected devices, generate physical and logical topology views, monitor network performance and availability, identify issues through contextual alerts, and simplify troubleshooting, documentation, and customer reporting.

For service providers, Network Management creates an opportunity to move from reactive troubleshooting to proactive network monitoring. It enables partners to identify issues earlier, reduce downtime, and build a repeatable, recurring managed service for SMB and midmarket customers, without the complexity of an enterprise network management system.

Shadow SaaS And AI Brings Disconnected Signals Together

WatchGuard’s new Shadow SaaS and AI capabilities address the three most common ways employees adopt AI without security or IT approval.

CloudDR discovers AI and SaaS applications through OAuth grants and email metadata, while FireCloud adds visibility into application usage on work devices and Firebox extends discovery across the corporate network. Together, these insights are consolidated into a single Discovered Applications inventory in CloudDR, giving MSPs a more complete view of Shadow AI and SaaS usage across customer environments.

Customers with the new Prime Security Suite (PSS) or Total Security Suite (TSS) also receive a Network Shadow AI dashboard at no additional licensing cost. Powered by Firebox telemetry, the dashboard gives MSPs visibility into AI applications accessed across customer networks, helping them uncover Shadow AI usage and identify potential risks

Partners can see which applications are being used, who is using them, what permissions they have and the risk they pose. From a single console, MSPs can assess application risk, approve or reject applications, revoke access and automate follow-up actions through playbooks.

Vulnerability Scanning Opens A Recurring-Service Motion

WatchGuard Vulnerability Scanning will be delivered as part of WatchGuard MDR, providing recurring visibility into known endpoint vulnerabilities and centralized management across customer environments.

The service will help MSPs identify and prioritize vulnerabilities, guide remediation, and reduce customer exposure as part of their managed security offering.

Together, the IMPACT Partner Conference 2026 announcements signal WatchGuard’s focus on helping partners consolidate operations, extend their service portfolio and manage more customers without adding complexity.

Watch the keynotes and learn more: Explore IMPACT 2026