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SonicWall & ConnectWise Simplify Security Management for MSPs

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When it comes to running a well-organized managed security service business, managed security providers (MSP) demand effective, repeatable processes and continuous operation optimization as a key part of their business strategy.

Evaluating and deciding on a wide-range of important operational capabilities are important to developing and delivering the right services — at the right time and for the right cost. These include choosing the right:

  • Technology partner
  • Staff
  • Data center architecture
  • Contractual terms
  • Service-level delivery
  • Go-to-market strategies
  • Back-office automation tools that power the business

To enable this strategy, MSPs face a myriad of business, economic and technical decisions associated with the infrastructure they’re going to develop and business management software they’re going to employ. Establishing a high-valued managed security service requires a solution that integrates modern security with rich management, monitoring and reporting capabilities with leading professional services automation (PSA) software.

“Establishing a high-valued managed security service requires a solution that integrates modern security with rich management, monitoring and reporting capabilities with leading professional services automation (PSA) software.”

This integration should give MSPs visibility and control of their multi-vendor solution environment and help them streamline business operations and reduce operating costs.

To properly empower MSPs, SonicWall introduces Global Management System (GMS) 8.7, bringing greater visibility, manageability and serviceability of network security solutions via integration with industry-leading professional services automation (PSA) tool ConnectWise Manage® software.

With more than 27,000 SecureFirst global channel partners, the GMS-ConnectWise integration is driven by the collective inputs from many years of partner collaborations. The benefits to MSPs are increased visibility into their customers’ data, improved productivity and better overall efficiency.

The combined solution gives MSPs single-portal experience for automated service ticketing and asset synchronization. MSPs can easily and quickly perform and administer these important operational tasks natively within the ConnectWise Manage portal based on set priority and/or severity level.

So, how does this improve MSP operations? Consider the four ways GMS 8.7 and the ConnectWise integration can simplify security management for your customers.

Company Mapping

MSP partners can share selected clients’ profiles between SonicWall GMS and ConnectWise Manage and map all managed SonicWall firewall assets associated with each client within the ConnectWise portal for management and monitoring.

Auto Asset Synchronization Integration

Automatically update the SonicWall security appliances mapped to a client’s account in the ConnectWise Automate portal for asset tracking and usage. Give visibility to client names and device details, such as model, serial, version, active subscription, enrolled dates, service expirations, IP/MAC address and more.

Asset Synchronization

MSPs also gain visibility into asset inventory inside ConnectWise for easier device management. Whenever a new unit is added, a configuration is created for that unit through ConnectWise and the same is stored in GMS. Reversely, whenever a unit is deleted, the configuration created in ConnectWise is deleted and the same is removed from GMS.

Auto Ticketing Service Integration

Create GMS-generated alerts automatically in the ConnectWise Manage ticketing system. Track, document and communicate all open tickets during the correction process until they are resolved and automatically closed.

Ticketing is mapped between the systems. When they are created in GMS, GMS synchronizes to reflect changes to both systems.

Automated Ticketing

ConnectWise can also send status alerts to the stakeholders using various communication tools until a service ticket is acknowledge or closed. These include email, text messages (SMS), phone calls and even iOS & Android push notifications.

With SonicWall, MSPs are partnering with a technology partner with deep expertise in security technology, operations and processes. Because a vast number of SonicWall partners rely on the ConnectWise Manage for their business-management platform, the GMS-ConnectWise integration is the first of many future product integrations to continue servicing our MSP business requirements.

12 New Products Usher in SonicWall’s Expansion into Mid-Tier Enterprise Market

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It’s been just 20 months.

And in that short time as an independent company, SonicWall employees, customers and partners have accomplished so much together. Our short-term mission was to rebuild the SonicWall brand, launch new and advanced cyber security solutions and services in the SMB space, and bring our global partner community back home.

SonicWall, it’s good to have you back.

Now that our heart, soul and technology are deeply rooted in protecting organizations in the SMB space, we feel it’s time to focus on another segment we serve: the mid-tier enterprise market, where we are the No. 5 player, according to Gartner.

That’s why today we announced a focused technology, security and partner mission to deliver network security solutions that align with the performance, security efficacy and high availability required by the modern mid-tier enterprise.

But we’re also focusing on disrupting the market with our Capture Cloud Platform, which brings together network, endpoint and application security with management, reporting, analytics and visual cyber threat intelligence.

“SonicWall is ensuring network security is available via bundles designed with the requirements of mid-tier enterprises in mind.”

This will usher in a new cost structure with an assertive total cost of ownership (TCO) offering via our Capture Security Center, Capture Client endpoint protection and our new NSa series high availability (HA) offerings.

In fact, most of our competitors still require a full-price purchase of the failover firewall unit, as well as full subscription services after the first year. We don’t think that’s right. And it certainly doesn’t make much business sense.

So, SonicWall wants to ensure two things:

  • Network security is available via bundles designed with the requirements of mid-tier enterprises in mind.
  • It’s easy for mid-tier enterprises to do business with our SecureFirst partners.

What’s New from SonicWall

All told, this platform announcement includes 12 new products, updates or enhancements. And we couldn’t be more excited to share this innovation with you. Please explore each in detail. We will have detailed blogs on many of the new and updated products in the coming days.

  • Capture Cloud Platform — Expanded for mid-tier enterprises and now delivers integrated cloud-scale management and true end-to-end security that protects networks, email, endpoints, mobile and remote users. This all-in-one approach enables our complete portfolio of high-performance hardware, virtual appliances and clients to harness the power, agility and scalability of the cloud.
  • Capture Security Center — Fully enhanced to deliver a unified security governance, compliance and risk management strategy. Improve security outcomes from the firewall to the endpoint with integrated threat intelligence between the SonicWall Capture Advanced Threat Protection (ATP) sandbox service, Capture Client endpoint protection and SentinelOne threat databases.
  • Capture Client 1.5 — Now integrated with the SonicWall Capture ATP sandbox service. Suspicious files that Capture Client gives a moderate threat score (but not high enough to merit an alert), may be automatically uploaded for analysis.
  • New NSa Next-Generation Firewalls — Replacing the SuperMassive 9200, 9400 and 9600 models, our new NSa 6650, 9250, 9450 and 9650 series deliver elite levels of performance, security efficacy and high availability for mid-tier enterprises — all with industry-low TCO.
  • New NSsp 12000 Next-Generation Firewalls — A brand new product line, the new NSsp 12400 and 12800 series next-generation firewalls align with advanced requirements of service providers and data centers and are capable of scanning millions of connections for the latest cyber threats.
  • Cloud App Security — Cloud-based security service that enables organizations to secure SaaS application usage and reduce risk of shadow IT. The solution provides functionality similar to Cloud Access Security Broker (CASB) offerings to deliver real-time visibility and control of applications being used by employees.
  • Analytics — Available in cloud-hosted or on-premise options, SonicWall Analytics provides network analysts, security operations engineers and incident responders deeper visibility into network traffic, threat information and cross-product insights to perform network forensics, security analysis and threat hunting for businesses, organizations and managed service providers (MSP) of all sizes.
  • SonicOS 6.5.2 — Adds 40 new security features to better secure wired, wireless and mobile network environments. It offers more dynamic defenses against modern zero-day threats, including attacks hidden within encrypted traffic, absolute control of application traffic without compromising performance and availability, and optimal wireless user experiences regardless of location.
  • Secure Mobile Access (SMA) 1000 Series 12.2 — Delivers consolidated access management and eliminates bad password habits with federated SSO to cloud and on-premise applications. Adds Always-On VPN for Windows devices for seamless and secure access from any location.
  • SMA 100 Series 9.0 — Integrates with Capture ATP to block malicious file uploads from remote users. Adds Always-On VPN for Windows devices for seamless and secure access from any location.
  • Email Security 9.2 — Blocks and quarantines messages with malicious URLs before they reach the inbox. Integrates with Google’s G Suite to provide advanced threat protection, strong data loss prevention and compliance engine, and email continuity.
  • Global Management System (GMS) 8.6 — Upgrades authentication measures with strict enforcement of password complexity and account lockout policies before granting access to its management platform. This protects against automated brute-force attacks (e.g., password spray campaigns). Update also adds management and provisioning support for the new NSa series firewalls running the latest SonicOS 6.5.2 and the “Firewall Sandwich” solution.

Enhancing our Go-to-Market Strategy

Fundamental to the release of these new enterprise-focused products and services is the strengthening of SonicWall go-to-market focus and resources. SonicWall will engage with organizations in key verticals, including retail, K12 and higher education, and state, local and federal government. SonicWall will also continue to focus on its partnership with Dell while building and expanding relationships with MSSPs.

To our existing customers, vendors and partners, thank you for making SonicWall what it is today. We can’t wait to see what we do next together.

To our future customers, trust us to protect what’s most important to you: your business, data and livelihood. Contact one of our cybersecurity experts to learn how our automated, real-time breach detection and prevention platform can protect your organization from both known and unknown cyberattacks in the fast-moving cyber arms race.

SonicOS 6.5, the Biggest Update in Company History, Delivers Powerful Security, Networking and Usability Capabilities

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Keeping organizations running safely, while improving business and user productivity in today’s accelerating threat environment, continues to be a non-trivial task for IT leaders. At the current pace of cyber attacks, we understand all too well that the effects of recent events, such as the Equifax, WannaCry and NotPetya attacks, have demonstrated their capacity to change the global business environment from normal to total hysteria in the blink of an eye.

When news breaks on new data breaches, we see a surge in conversations with our SonicWall partner and customer communities about security and risk assessments. These engagements reinforce our development commitment to ensure every new product release delivers more tools and capabilities to protect their networks and data, and subsequently avoid the unnecessary breach.

Delivering on that commitment, I am thrilled to introduce SonicWall’s biggest firewall feature release in its history. SonicWall SonicOS 6.5 is packed with powerful security, networking and usability capabilities, and meets the security operation requirements of organizations of various sizes and use cases. SonicOS 6.5 focuses on empowering IT leaders and their security teams to:

  • Elevate their breach detection and prevention capacity
  • Manage and enforce security controls across the entire organization
  • Bring the latest in wireless speed, performance and security for cloud and mobile users
  • Scale firewall networking, connectivity and performance for uncompromised, uninterrupted network services

SonicOS 6.5 delivers the following customer-focused outcomes as part of SonicWall’s expanding Automated Real-Time Breach Detection and Prevention Platform.

1. Bolster breach prevention capabilities for wired, wireless and cloud-enabled network environments

  • SonicOS 6.5 includes 60-plus new features, nearly half of which focus on enabling the latest Wi-Fi standard, 802.11ac Wave 2, to deliver matching network security performance, connectivity and security between wired and wireless networks.
  • The combination of SonicWall firewalls and the new SonicWave 802.11ac Wave 2 series of wireless access points gives customers the assurance that their users have uninterrupted, secure and fast access to business services and resources over wired and wireless connections.
  • Built-in features, like Wireless Deployment Tools, greatly aid in planning and building a robust wireless infrastructure, while Band Steering, Airtime Fairness and others improve the overall wireless service quality and performance to give users a safe, productive wireless experience. This helps eliminate dropped connections and slowness anytime, anywhere and in any environment within the workplace. Moreover, Dynamic VLAN assignment segments wireless users based on their roles and group associations to prevent advanced threats from spreading.
  • SonicOS 6.5 expands the threat API capabilities to help customers establish a path toward security automation. Through greater firewall collaboration with third-party security ecosystem, the firewall can automatically pull external intelligence sources for threat detection and protection, and security policies enforcement. For example, our Dynamic Botnet List feature enables customers to program their firewalls to download private third-party lists that contain desired security information, such as malicious IP and URL addresses, that they want the firewall to block for additional threat coverage.
  • For distributed organizations that have offices operating on different network domains, the new multi-domain security management capability in SonicOS 6.5 helps them manage and enforce discrete security policies across those domains. Based on service levels, risk tolerance, compliance and/or legal requirements, administrators can apply identical security controls to all domains or specific policy to a single domain or group of domains. This flexibility helps reduce the attack surface, eliminate security gaps, isolate risks and prevent any lateral movement of backdoor, network-based attacks, such as WannCry and NotPetya.

2. Increase scalability and connectivity of the firewall system

  • Advances in Layer 2/3 network and connectivity help customers optimize system availability and performance, and scale the firewall to deliver uncompromised, uninterrupted threat protection for every connected network domain. Supported on all SonicWall next-generation firewall (NGFW) models, including the newest NSA 2650, SonicOS 6.5 also supports daisy-chaining and management of Dell X-Series switches, Virtual Wire Mode, Dynamic LAG using LACP and Equal Cost Multi-Path (ECMP).
  • Using multi-domain security management in conjunction with virtual wire mode gives customers the ability to micro-segment and manage their virtual networks. These also provide independent security management, policies, controls and scanning to each virtual network with its separate security zone.

3. Improve ease of use and firewall management

  • SonicOS 6.5 introduces a completely redesigned user interface (UI) for a fresh, productive user experience (UX). This new UI gives users an executive dashboard loaded with security, user and traffic information. It also offers an organized, familiar and easily-understood menu-driven security management console. The dashboard presents a consolidated view of the live firewall security environment. This view includes a threat index, security events and data, network performance and connectivity, and application and bandwidth usage. The intuitive UI lets users complete security tasks faster, and with greater ease, from a single-pane-of-glass.
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SonicWall and Dell EMC: A Strategic Partnership Providing Network Security Solutions to Stay Ahead of the Cyber Arms Race

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I am pleased to announce that, Dell EMC is now shipping the OEM version of the SonicWall next-generation cyber security firewall solutions in the United States and Canada.  Continuing on our long time partnership and resale relationship, Dell EMC will offer the powerful combination of SonicWall’s innovative threat protection technology and Dell EMC’s broad set of solutions from the data center all the way to endpoint devices.

Organizations today are looking to transform their business to drive IT innovation, enhance workforce mobility and reduce risk. However, digital transformation can increase exposure to risks that can directly impact an organization’s data, reputation, and credibility.

Addressing customer’s security needs as they move to the cloud, extend their network and storage solutions, and migrate to more mobile and IoT environments is critical with today’s threat landscape.  The combination of Dell EMC solutions and SonicWall is a great value add to Dell EMC customers and the partner community.

Here are some key points on the OEM:

SonicWall next-generation firewalls provide effective threat prevention through a layered approach on top of our multi-engine cloud-based SonicWall Capture Advanced Threat Protection Service. This solution protects organizations from today’s most insidious threats including ransomware, encrypted malware, mobile threats and email-borne attacks.

The SonicWall OEM security solution is a critical affirmation of how important the Dell EMC – SonicWall partnership is for their large customer base and their Dell EMC Partner Program members.

For additional information, please see the following press release – https://www.sonicwall.com/en-us/about-sonicwall/news/press-releases/pr-articles/sonicwall-and-dell-emc-announce-oem-launch-of-next

VIEW PRESS RELEASE