If you’re keeping up with the pfSense® project, you will know that 2015 has been a busy year. This includes the launch of our official partner program which enables customers from around the world to purchase official pfSense hardware and services from a recognized and supported entity in their own geographic location.

One of our Select Partners in Europe is Voleatech GbR. We reached out to the CEO, Sven Auhagen, for some comments on his experience being a pfSense partner. We encourage any pfSense customer in the region to get in contact with Sven and his team to see how they can help you with official pfSense hardware and services. It has been a delight for us at pfSense to work with Sven on making our offering available to those in Europe. You can reach Sven at pfSense@voleatech.de

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You are the CEO of Voleatech GbR. Tell us a little bit about your company.

My company was founded on the philosophy and values of bringing open source products to people and enterprises, and we have been very successful thus far. We want to provide the best possible customer service and experience and combine traditional business models with open source products to enable the best of both worlds to our customers.

What made you want to become an official pfSense partner in Europe?

We were actually interested in a pfSense partnership before the partner program started. The main reason is our previous experience with pfSense and our strong belief in the project. We had already implemented pfSense with some of our larger enterprise customers before the partner program, and always had a great experience and feedback.

In my opinion pfSense is the best firewall available and we want to bring that experience to Europe in an official way so it is easier for customers to obtain official pfSense hardware. Also, the more awareness we can bring to the project and its utility in a business environment, the more it can grow and continue in its development.

Since becoming an official partner, how has your business performed?

We were excited by the great responses from our customers all over Europe. We are trying to make the pfSense hardware as affordable as possible by providing the same experience as purchasing from pfSense directly. Customer satisfaction is the most important goal we have and pfSense helped grow our business and professional services offering since becoming an official partner.

How has the pfSense team enabled your business to succeed?

The support the pfSense team has provided has been amazing. They have really enabled us to sell pfSense products in Europe. They helped us with an open ear and being there for us if we had any technical questions we couldn’t handle ourselves. The team around pfSense have been great to Voleatech.

What benefits does a customer realize by purchasing official pfSense products?

The most obvious one is having a great hardware with the pfSense logo. This our favorite firewall product. The hardware is optimized for the pfSense and pfSense software is pre-installed and tested. No more worries about updates or wrong drivers for the hardware anymore! For speed, look-and-feel and ease of use, the official pfSense hardware has been the best I have seen so far. I personally use a SG-2220 at home and I have to say I am amazed by it.

What are the benefits of purchasing an official pfSense product from Voleatech?

If you are a customer in Europe, buying from Voleatech has all the benefits of buying from pfSense directly, and more. We are based out of Europe in south Germany. When you go to Voleatech for your pfSense needs, you do not have to worry about importing the hardware, currency exchange, fees for customs and VAT, etc. As an official partner, the hardware we sell is the same as the hardware from the pfSense store. We do ship out of Europe and most of our orders ship within 3 days. So your firewall could be at your doorstep a lot faster than ordering from the pfSense store if you live in Europe.

We offer professional services and support to our customers in Europe after their purchase and expert consultation before the purchase to help in finding the best solution for them.

Explain your “service after the sale” approach.

We do offer a range of services before and after the sale.

pfSense Customers can benefit from a range of professional services after their pfSense purchase with us. We offer professional support for customers network infrastructure so their network products are always secure and up to date. In case of an emergency our staff is available to help and resolve it as quick as possible.

Our team can also help you design a new network or update your current network structure to better fit your current needs.

We also offer systems and infrastructure installation of pfSense or Linux systems, as well as migrations from other security appliances to pfSense so customers can get the most out of their pfSense hardware.

What are your plans for the future as it relates to pfSense?

We would like to grow the pfSense part of our business and establish pfSense as an enterprise brand that is known beyond the current community for reliability, features and great service.

The community is an important part of pfSense and I strongly believe the community and increased visibility in the enterprise will be a tremendous benefit. I see pfSense as an equal with other big router and network security products used not just by end users at home, but also at critical parts of the enterprise network infrastructure. Voleatech wants to be part of it!

In cooperation with pfSense, we want to be the technical experts customers can go to in Europe to solve any problem with pfSense.