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In the Field: Real-World Success with SonicWall Overdrive 2.0

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Effectively marketing and selling managed service provider (MSP) services can be a real uphill battle for many organizations. The competition is fierce and positioning your organization’s services or competitive advantages isn’t easy.

For many MSPs and MSSPs, the responsibility of envisioning, designing, developing and maintaining effective marketing materials falls on the shoulders of the sales team or the senior leadership team. But they don’t always have the time or skill to execute what’s needed to cut through the cacophony of marketing noise.

Fortunately, SonicWall has alleviated much of this burden.

SonicWall Overdrive 2.0 is a remarkable resource stocked with modern, appealing and relevant content to help MSPs and MSSPs generate demand and close more business.

If you haven’t spent time in Overdrive 2.0, you’re missing out; there is an incredibly diverse set of resources to assist and even automate things like email blasts, social media, thought-leadership content and promotional material.

In my experience, there are three foundational best practices you should implement as an MSP or MSSP, especially when you’re scratching and clawing for sales in the competitive cybersecurity landscape.

Set Your Goals

Let me take you back a few years. As SonicWall’s FY2016 drew to a close, ProviNET scheduled a meeting with our SonicWall territory account manager (TAM). He really challenged us to set a goal for FY2017 to move up a level in our SonicWall SecureFirst partnership.

He was right. We had been a SonicWall ‘Silver’ partner for several years and with our FY2016 sales, we weren’t too far away from being eligible for ‘gold’ if we also achieved some additional sales and technical certifications. But we weren’t quite sure how to push ourselves across that next threshold.

Our TAM had the answer. He turned us on to SonicWall Overdrive 2.0, the company’s fully automated partner marketing engine designed specifically around key go-to-market themes, campaigns and resources. He assured us that if we invested a little bit of time into marketing, we’d be able to elevate our partnership. With that, our goal was set: we were going to become a SonicWall gold partner in 2017.

SonicWall Overdrive offers turnkey campaigns SecureFirst partners can launch to build awareness, create pipeline and close deals.

Develop Your Strategy

Without a strategy, marketing is a lot like throwing bubble gum at the wall and seeing if it sticks. Spend some time intentionally thinking through four things:

  • Who your organization will target
  • What methods it will use to target
  • How often you will target potential buyers
  • How you will track and measure your efforts

If you have a dedicated marketing person, consider developing a multi-faceted campaign that the marketing team can execute. The campaign should include multiple touchpoints across a variety of channels. Overdrive is an easy-to-use tool, regardless of your resources, to reach your customers and prospects.

At a basic level, consider sending an email blast, posting on social media, sending a postcard, publishing whitepapers or case studies on the website, and using the Overdrive 2.0 content to educate customers and prospects.

SonicWall Overdrive 2.0 packages content and resources partners can leverage as part of one-off marketing efforts or fully integrated campaigns.

We had success using much of the Overdrive 2.0 content to point people to a dedicated SonicWall landing page within our own website where prospects could fill out a form and be contacted to learn more. And because these campaigns were launched by us, they were contacting us for more information (i.e., we received the lead and the opportunity to either nurture the prospect or close the deal).

Even sophisticated customers will not always be able to grasp the full advantages and capabilities of the Capture Cloud platform after just one touchpoint. It will be important to educate them on the advantages that the orchestration of these security products and services can provide to them.

But don’t forget about existing customers here, too. For us, the Overdrive 2.0 marketing content was a motivator to look across our existing SonicWall customer install base and look for opportunity to add additional services like the SonicWall Capture Advanced Threat Protection (ATP) sandbox service or secure email solutions.

Analyze Your Results

There is remarkably valuable information in marketing analytics reports. Whether you use a marketing automation tool, a website analytics engine or even just campaign reporting from Overdrive, it can help your sales staff be more efficient and effective in their sales efforts.

Our team uses a combination of HubSpot, Google Analytics, and the email reports from Overdrive 2.0 to glean insights into customers and prospects who may or may not have an interest in particular marketing campaigns.

We can track if an individual opened an email four times, clicked the link to our site, or engaged with us on social media on several occasions to gauge if there is a genuine interest. Our sales team then makes those prospects and customers the focus of contact for more direct conversations — and that often leads to close deals.

Bear in mind, the goal of marketing is not to sell. These are two very different activities. For ProviNET, we define marketing as a process where we:

Our sales team has a very different, yet complementary, function:

SonicWall Overdrive 2.0 has been an invaluable resource for our team to really accomplish all four of our marketing objectives. By using the assets available in Overdrive 2.0, we’re providing meaningful education about the necessity and value of security products and services. We can position those assets in a compelling and efficient manner to provide the most value to our prospects and customers.

Even better? All registered SonicWall SecureFirst Silver, Gold and Platinum partners in good standing are eligible to use the SonicWall Overdrive 2.0 platform, at no cost, through the SonicWall SecureFirst Partner Portal.

About ProviNET

ProviNET is a SonicWall SecureFirst Gold Partner. For nearly three decades, ProviNET has delivered trusted technology solutions for senior living and post-acute healthcare organizations. Whether it’s a single project or full-time onsite work, ProviNET designs and implements customized solutions so healthcare organizations can focus on core services.

ProviNET’s tight-knit group of experienced, industry-certified personnel are focused on customer satisfaction. They are a reputable organization, fulfilling immediate IT needs and helping plan for tomorrow. They are ready to put their extensive knowledge to work for healthcare, developing strategies and solving challenges with the latest technology.

To learn more about ProviNET, please visit www.provinet.com.

SonicWall’s Multi-Cloud Offering Extends to Hyper-V Private Clouds with Flexible Licensing

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Technology and data usage are changing at a rapid pace. Finding a way to store, manage and distribute data is a major challenge. Plus, the need for compute and storage grows at unprecedented rates. You need to buy racks, then hire staff to configure, maintain and monitor appliances.

It’s a no-brainer that cloud adoption is becoming inevitable.

According to a recent study by RightScale, more than 81 percent of enterprises have a multi-cloud strategy in place. Of this group, 51 percent have embraced hybrid cloud environments, while 21 percent use multiple public clouds and 10 percent have various private cloud strategies.

Cloud adoption drives business growth by increasing agility and innovation, while reducing cost. According to Gartner, by 2020 a “No-Cloud” policy will be as rare as a “No-Internet” policy is today. So, you can imagine the importance of secure cloud adoption. It is the future.

Private Cloud Security from SonicWall

In line with this, SonicWall continues to expand its cloud offering with added support of the Microsoft Hyper-V platform on SonicWall Network Security virtual (NSv) firewall series, along with new flexible licensing options. SonicWall also recently announced support for AWS* and Azure platforms.

Hyper-V support is available across the full suite of NSv firewalls. The flexible licensing model introduces a non-perpetual method of licensing your firewalls. Securing data wherever it resides should be consistent and seamless, providing you increased flexibility and an improved security posture.

Do I Need Virtual Firewalls?

While securing the cloud is a must, it is not an easy task. Gartner predicts that through 2020, 95 percent of cloud security failures will be the customer’s fault. And according to Research and Markets, the cloud data center market is expected to reach $67.5 billion by 2023.

With the widespread adoption of virtualization, it becomes increasingly critical to secure workloads and data across your multi-cloud deployment. Virtual firewalls can be deployed quickly, driving productivity and innovation. By being virtual, there is a huge benefit of shifting from CapEx to OpEx models.

Virtual firewalls, like NSv, address some of the critical needs of public cloud security. Below are some of the key benefits of leveraging NSv to protect your public cloud infrastructure and resources.

  • Gain complete visibility into virtual environment for threat prevention
  • Implement proper security zoning and ensure appropriate placement of policies
  • Defend against zero-day vulnerabilities with SonicWall Capture ATP
  • Prevent service disruptions in the virtual ecosystem
  • Gain centralized control and visibility with single-pane-of-glass management via Capture Security Center
  • Leverage agility and scalability without performance impact
  • Maintain security governance, compliance and risk management

Plus, as the threat landscape evolves and takes advantage of various vulnerabilities in the cloud and virtual workloads, it is essential to secure cloud infrastructure. Some of the common type of attacks include cross-virtual machine attacks and side-channel attacks, like PortSmash and Foreshadow.

Virtual firewalls can be used to defend against information threats and protect against unauthorized takeover of virtual machines (VMs). It can provide security at every level of the virtual environment, providing granular security posture control.

What Cloud Platforms do SonicWall Virtual Firewalls Support?

With NSv virtual firewalls you can leverage next-gen firewall capabilities across your multi-cloud deployments. Platform support currently extends to ESXi, Azure, AWS* and Hyper-V*.

How Can I Purchase NSv?

Previously, NSv was available only via perpetual licensing. To solve the challenge of relying just on perpetual model licensing and provide flexibility to our customers, SonicWall introduces non-perpetual licensing for NSv. This is an additional offering to the current SonicWall perpetual licensing model.

SonicWall licensing models provide customers the flexibility to choose perpetual licensing or non-perpetual licensing based on their requirements.

Non-Perpetual Licensing Model

Non-perpetual licensing is ideal for those who require a short-term solution and agile deployments. It’s a single bundle for firewall software, security and support services, making it simple to purchase these appliances. Once the period ends, all services expire at the same time. Customers are notified via MySonicWall before service expiration.

The non-perpetual licensing model is available via the three options: IPS/App Control Subscription, TotalSecure Subscription and TotalSecure Advanced Subscription, which is available over a one-year period.

Service Offering Type Bundled Service
IPS/App Control Subscription NSv Software + IPS + App Control + Support
TotalSecure Subscription NSv Software + CGSS + Support + CSC
TotalSecure Advanced Subscription NSv Software + AGSS + Support + CSC

Perpetual Licensing Model

Perpetual licensing is SonicWall’s traditional licensing model where firewall services do not expire, while security and support services do. Perpetual licensing is suitable to customers that require long-term solutions.

Virtual Firewall Promo: NSa/NSsp with NSv

The SonicWall NSv promo enables organizations to extend the next-gen security of their private data center to the public cloud and ensure end-to-end security of their multi-cloud environment.

Organizations can test drive SonicWall virtual firewalls at no additional cost or commitment to see if it fits their needs and requirements.

  • Test drive an NSv with a TotalSecure subscription for one year at no additional cost
  • Get an NSv TotalSecure subscription with Comprehensive Gateway Security Service (CGSS), Capture Security Center and 24×7 support
  • Requires eligible SonicWall NSa or NSsp firewall with an active AGSS/CGSS subscription
  • Deploy NSv firewalls across public and private cloud platforms, including ESXi, Azure, AWS* and Hyper-V*
GET THE PROMO DETAILS

To take advantage of the SonicWall NSv virtual firewall promo, please contact your dedicated SonicWall SecureFirst partner or reach out to SonicWall online.

What to Look for in a Next-Gen Virtual Firewall

To best capitalize on virtualization trends, IT must operationalize the complete virtualization of computing, networking, storage and security in a systematic way. A new approach is required to select an appropriate and effective next-generation virtual firewall solution. Download our exclusive brief to explore fundamental capabilities, core solution requirements and best practices.

GET THE BRIEF

* Hyper-V and AWS availability pending.

Security for Multi-Cloud Strategies: How SonicWall Safely Guides Organizations to a Virtualized, Cloud-Connected World

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Not every organization adopts new technology with the same gumption and fervor. Some are measured and patient. Others are early and agile. And this dichotomy holds true for embracing cloud initiatives.

That’s why SonicWall’s goal is to make the journey to the cloud secure, fast, efficient and cost-effective for enterprises and SMBs across a wide range of industries and verticals. To usher organizations toward a secure, cloud-powered existence, the SonicWall Capture Cloud Platform protects your multi-cloud infrastructures by helping you:

  1. Build, operate and manage secure, high-performance networks using hybrid cloud strategies.
  2. Secure public, private and hybrid clouds with affordable, easy-to-use virtual appliances and solutions.
  3. Use personalized, real-time cyber threat intelligence and risk scoring to identify potential security vulnerabilities.

On paper, that’s logical and pragmatic. In reality, that requires real products, services and solutions. As such, SonicWall is introducing a range of new products and enhancements, which includes:

  • Secure SD-WAN — A new capability of SonicOS 6.5.3 and available on SonicWall next-generation firewalls, SonicWall Secure SD-WAN enables distributed organizations to safely deploy and connect branch and remote sites for sharing data, applications and services.
  • Zero-Touch Deployment — Another feature of SonicOS, SonicWall Zero-Touch Deployment allows organizations to quickly and securely launch new SD-WAN-connected locations without requiring on-site personnel to configure hardware.
  • NSv Firewalls — SonicWall NSv virtually extends next-generation firewall capabilities to cloud deployments, which now include Azure and AWS.* Cloud security capabilities include application control, IPS, TLS/SSL decryption and inspection, advanced threat protection (ATP), VPN and network segmentation.
  • Capture Security Center Risk Meters — The new Risk Meters service empowers organizations with data-driven analysis about evolving cyber threat vectors (e.g., network, web, cloud, applications, endpoints, mobile devices, databases) that expand beyond the traditional corporate perimeter.
  • TZ300P & TZ600P Firewalls — New SonicWall TZ300P and TZ600P unified threat management (UTM) firewalls reduce the costs and complexity associated with PoE injectors and switches by providing power directly to connected PoE-enabled devices (i.e., fewer cables because no dedicated power source required), such as wireless access points, point-of-sale (POS) terminals, printers, cameras and other IP devices.

Evolving the SonicWall Capture Cloud Platform

The SonicWall Capture Cloud Platform tightly integrates security, management, analytics and real-time threat intelligence across the company’s full portfolio of network, email, mobile and cloud security products.

The platform provides intelligence, management and analytics to supplement SonicWall’s complete portfolio of cybersecurity hardware, virtual appliances and endpoint clients for an efficient, easy-to-use and connected customer experience.

SonicWall’s mission remains as steadfast as ever: deliver automated, real-time breach detection and protection for enterprises and SMBs. This is the next phase of that unwavering commitment.

Each new product or solution will be featured via in-depth blog coverage this week. To inquire about a specific product, please contact SonicWall or reach out to your dedicated SonicWall SecureFirst partner.

* Availability in the AWS Marketplace pending.

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.

Maintaining Your Most Valuable Assets

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by Charles Ho
SonicWall Outside Regional Sales Director

Creating a team of skilled security professionals is the single biggest gap for businesses today. While this gap is fueling the need for managed security services, managed security service providers (MSSPs) also face the same problem.

MSSP staff members are constantly being approached by recruiters, competitors and even their customers. The value that MSSPs deliver to their customers is a direct correlation to the talented people manning their operations. How can you better keep your security operations center (SOC) analysts happy, engaged and committed for the long term? Compensation is obvious, but I want to focus on three arguably more important factors: technology, team building and enablement.

Technology

Throughout an analyst’s day, they’re touching different technologies at the customer site and in your SOC. Having access to the right tools can make the job significantly more effective and efficient, which cuts down on frustration and increases productivity.

Involve analysts in technology choices

Which threat detection technology should your customer deploy? Ask your analyst! They understand what’s effective but more importantly, which technologies make their job easier. One brand’s alerts may only show a title, but another brand may provide comprehensive access to packet data as well as additional context from threat intelligence feeds. This is even more important when evaluating SOC tools. Changing to a more cost-effective tool that your analysts hate will only result in employee attrition.

Look at automation

Many MSSPs I talk to are looking at automation to reduce costs by increasing the analyst-to-customer ratio. However, the bigger benefit is being able to reduce the amount of Level 1 work an analyst needs to perform. Analysts love working on net-new cases where they can potentially unravel a significant breach and will, in many cases, work overtime to continue to triage. The opposite is also true, where working on repetitive cases can lead to fatigue.

Team Building and Culture

Analysts don’t work alone. The more they can work as a team, the more effective they’ll be. The camaraderie of a team helps employees believe they’re part of something bigger than themselves. Here are some suggestions to improve working environment:

Promote joint activities outside of work

  • Provide access to entertainment at the office with a focus on multiplayer activities, like ping pong
  • Plan regular team-building activities, like a staff lunch
  • Encourage involvement in company activities
  • Rotate analysts appropriately so everyone gets a chance to participate

Encourage interaction between SOCs

  • Hold regular video conference hand-offs; everyone needs to know everyone’s face
  • Offer cross-SOC training opportunities
  • Create options to relocate between SOCs

Enablement and Career

Just like any other job, a network security employee wants to grow professionally. Not only do they want to enhance their skills, but they also want the opportunity to progress to a bigger role. Unless you’re a global MSSP, the latter can be a challenge as the company structure can be very flat. Some suggestions for professional development:

Implement training and mentor programs

  • Particularly for a new analyst, it can be very rewarding to learn from someone senior. Establishing mentor relationships not only allows the new analyst to grow, but can also give the senior analyst a sense of accomplishment, especially if they’re not a manager.
  • Encourage and support external training activities. Sending someone to the yearly Black Hat global information security conference can be seen as a big reward, but attending smaller — and often free — vendor trainings can have similar effects.

Expand job scopes

It’s not always possible to promote an individual, but providing them unique opportunities to show off their capability can be an alternative to career progression.

  • Use case walkthroughs with the team to have analysts share interesting findings. This is even better if they can share their discoveries with people outside the SOC, such as the sales team.
  • Provide SOC tours to customers and have analysts walk through their daily activity and share sample cases.
  • Use monthly/quarterly customer reviews (onsite or remote) to show value to customers beyond reporting and alerting.

SOC analysts are your most valuable asset. Keep them happy and your business will prosper.

Learn more information about SonicWall’s SecureFirst partner program, which helps accelerate our partners’ ability to be thought-leaders and game-changers in the ever-evolving security landscape.

https://www.sonicwall.com/en-us/partners/mssp-partner-program

eWeek Goes 1-on-1 with SonicWall CEO Bill Conner

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Bill Conner has a plan for SonicWall. And he’s already ahead of it.

In a recent interview with eWeek, the SonicWall CEO provided high-level perspective on not only where SonicWall is and how it got here, but also where it’s going in the future. It was a candid, one-on-one conversation that really lets the industry get to know SonicWall as a company.

“Everything comes through some kind of a network … where we think the market is going is really going to be about automated, real-time breach detection and prevention,” said Conner.

Announced in May 2018, SonicWall financially separated from Quest with oversubscribed investment interest and unprecedented growth in the last six quarters. This success is less than two years removed from Francisco Partner’s purchase of SonicWall from Dell.

“We still have Dell as a partner, and as an OEM, and still do a great deal of business with them,” Conner told eWeek. “We also have business that has nothing to do with Dell.”

Conner walked eWeek through the last 10 months of fast-moving growth for SonicWall, which included 12 new products that featured updates to trusted firewalls, introduced new virtual firewall offerings and unveiled the SonicWall Capture Cloud Platform.

Conner stressed that all of the development into defending endpoints, email and other areas of vulnerability does not mean that SonicWall is diverging from its true nature, which is primarily that of a network security company. SonicWall is simply expanding the breadth of its cyber security portfolio to deliver more cost-effective, real-time protection to customers and partners.

“One of the big questions when I came in was, ‘Is the brand going to be alive?’” said Conner. “Then there were questions about our roadmap and ability to deliver … Now our vision, that I started talking about six quarters ago, is starting to be real.”

This fiscal year SonicWall also added over 24,000 SecureFirst partner organizations, a 60 percent year-over-year increase, while closing $530 million in partner deal registrations. Since the start of 2018, SonicWall has collected 27 cybersecurity industry accolades, most recently being named the Editor’s Choice Security Company of the Year by Cyber Defense Magazine.

SonicWall PEAK17 Partner Roadshow Touring Europe

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19-City Tour Brings SonicWall Enablement, Networking to EMEA Partners

It’s no secret that SonicWall is committed to its partner community. The latest testament to this dedication is the PEAK17 partner roadshow, which is currently on a 19-city European tour that launched in March.

The annual roadshow takes SonicWall right to the partners to deliver updates to the SonicWall SecureFirst partner program, news on SonicWall SonicOS 6.5 launch, market momentum, new marketing tools and more.

“We have been working together with SonicWall for 15 years, but this power of innovation is the greatest we’ve ever seen,” said Ralf Leibmann of CONCIPIA GmbH, a SonicWall partner. “Especially as a managed security provider, we are very happy to have a professional partner like SonicWall that leads us to be one of the greatest MSPs in Germany.”

In September, the roadshow started its second leg by visiting Wien, Austria; Essen, Germany; Bern, Switzerland; and Ulm, Germany. The next stop will be Oct. 3 in Stockholm, Sweden. The 2017 roadshow will conclude on Nov. 11 in Paris, France.

“It was a great event with brand-new, first-hand information from representatives and partners,” said Werner Lenz of LENZ IT & NetWorking Solutions. “A big thanks to SonicWall for being a reliable partner over the years. It enabled us to continuously expand our business and build strong relationships to our customers.”

Upcoming stops will be highlighted by keynote sessions from SonicWall President and CEO Bill Conner (UK and Italy), dedicated channel strategy sessions from Senior Vice President and Chief Revenue Officer Steve Pataky (UK and Italy), and exclusive product updates from Executive Director of Product Management Dmitriy Ayrapetov (UK, Italy, Ireland and Germany).

Each day-long event will feature product-specific positioning sessions – new NSA 2650 firewall and SonicWave Wireless Access Points, marketing and partner enablement updates, and professional service presentations. The roadshow — featuring popular social events like cooking classes, wine tasting, theatre visits and escape rooms — is the perfect opportunity to learn best practices for engaging prospects, exceeding customer expectations and growing revenue opportunities.

“I really enjoyed the experience to attend the PEAK17 Partner Roadshow in Essen in a nice location,” said choin! CEO Boris Wetzel, a SonicWall gold partner in Germany. “It was an excellent event with great updates on products and roadmap. It is great to see the changes and the commitment from SonicWall.”

This is the roadshow’s second trip through Europe in 2017. Earlier in the year, SonicWall hosted partner events in Germany, Austria, Switzerland and the Netherlands. This drove SonicWall’s European partner outreach program to 19 cities for the year.

Honoring SonicWall Partners

At the PEAK17 events in Germany, Austria and Switzerland, SonicWall hosted award ceremonies to honor the region’s most successful partners.

Germany

  • SonicWall Distributor 2017: Infinigate
  • SonicWall Most Valuable Partner 2017: Axsos
  • SonicWall Security Project 2017: Kodak with Partner Axsos
  • SonicWall MSSP 2017: Concipia
  • SonicWall Mittelstandspartner 2017: Tarador

Switzerland

  • SonicWall Partner of the Year 2017: Vitodata

Austria

Attend PEAK 17

If you’re interested in attending an upcoming PEAK17 roadshow event in Europe or Africa, please reference the table below and register for a city near you.

City Country Date Registration
Wien Austria 13.09.2017 Complete
Essen Germany 19.09.2017 Complete
Bern Switzerland 20.09.2017 Complete
Ulm Germany 21.09.2017 Complete
Stockholm Sweden 03.10.2017 Complete
London United Kingdom 04.10.2017 Complete
Madrid Spain 04.10.2017 Complete
Florence Italy 05.10.2017 Complete
Dublin Ireland 06.10.2017 Complete
Hamburg Germany 10.10.2017 Complete
Johannesburg South Africa 19.10.2017 Complete
Nantes France 07.11.2017 Register
Paris France 09.11.2017 Register

SonicWall Announces Channel Partner Award Winners at APJ Partner Summit 2017

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Last week, SonicWall hosted over fifty enthusiastic partners across 14 countries at our Asia Pacific and Japan Partner Summit. Phuket with its lush and leafy surroundings and dramatic beach sunsets proved a popular location for our APJ Partner conference. Our purpose was to clearly articulate the vision for SonicWall as we build our solutions and capabilities to fight in an era of unprecedented cyber security challenges. And we cannot do this alone, it’s the combined effort of our products and our partners’ services that allow for our customers to be protected.

When we say we are a 100 percent channel company, it’s not a claim we take lightly. We are reliant on our partners and their commitment to work with us and be the trusted advisors for their customers.  Keeping up with the cyber threats is difficult, but especially so with smaller and mid-enterprise businesses where there is a limitation on the level of investment and ability to source dedicated IT security and networking resources. Partners are key to helping to impart both their knowledge, expertise and experience to help these organizations have the most effective security practices and solutions. Allowing the current distractions and disruptions in business caused by very prevalent threats such as ransomware and other forms of cyber-attack vectors, to be prevented in real-time.

We enlisted some of our key SonicWall executives to brief our partners on what we have been working on to deliver on our vision; including the focus and investment in enabling, educating and incentivizing our partners through the SecureFirst Partner Program. Our SVP of Global Sales and Chief Revenue Officer, Steve Pataky detailed some of the results we’ve seen to date since the launch of SecureFirst, including the number of newly signed partners, the uptake and utilization of SonicWall University’s role-based courses, and increase in adoption of Capture Advanced Threat Protection (ATP) Services to provide a stronger level of protection to customers.

Dmitriy Ayrapetov, Executive Director of Global Product Management detailed our product and solutions road-map for the next two quarters – giving the partners a sneak preview into what is going to be launched into the market over the coming quarters to strengthen our existing portfolio. Gary Staff, Director of Global Services brought fresh insight into partner service opportunities that will be available to our partners to deliver even more value to their customers. And Keith Trottier, Vice President of Global Client Services and Support exemplified the steps SonicWall has taken to improve our customer and technical support, and how we are working to further refine and extend our capabilities.

To me, one of the best parts of the APJ Partner Summit was the Partner Advisory Break-Out sessions run to garner feedback on several key topics to ensure we are listening to the partners and what they are experiencing on the front line. This keeps us in sync with their needs, brings fresh ideas to the table and makes us accountable to ensure that working with SonicWall is helping them solve their customer problems and be impactful to their own success.

Our APJ Partner Summit concluded with an awards evening to recognize those partners who exemplify commitment to the SonicWall SecureFirst program and achieved substantial sales growth over the last year leveraging our full solutions portfolio. The awards highlighted partner excellence for Distribution, Channel Partners, and Emerging Partners.

I’d like to extend congratulations to the following winners:

Country/Region Awards Winners:

APJ Award Winners:

Events such as these are always a great reminder of the mutual success we share with our security partners, and the together we are working to protect our mutual customers from known and unknown adversaries.

The feedback we received from our partners reaffirmed that there is a clear need to allow IT to move away from being an obstacle to the business to becoming an enabler, with technologies that protect from threats, but still provide easy access for all workers, especially those who are mobile or remote.

A huge thank you to all our partners who participated – we have listened, and we will strive to continue building stronger partnerships.