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A New Cyber Security Certification: SonicWall Network Security Administrator Course

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SonicWall has spent the last 12 months deeply focused on training and enablement for our partners, customers and employees. Based on student feedback and market requirements, the company’s Education Services Organization is introducing the SonicWall Network Security Administrator (SNSA) course; a completely new training course and certification exam that will replace the Network Security Basic Administration (NSBA) class.

The SNSA training curriculum is designed to teach students specific SonicWall network security technology. The course will provide students with the skills to successfully implement and configure SonicWall firewall appliances and security services.

Improvements included with SNSA:

  • Two days of instructor-led classroom training, with 80 percent hands-on labs and 20 percent lecture
  • Six hours of online learning modules, which may be completed before or after the classroom portion
  • Based on the recently released SonicOS 6.5 firmware
  • Generic network security theory is removed and provided in supplemental training material

Consistent SonicWall training across the globe

To support the launch of the SNSA course, SonicWall Education Services is also launching a new Authorized Training Partner (ATP) strategy to enhance consistency in the delivery of training content and guidance. This new strategy encompasses:

  • Coverage provided by three global strategic training partners, augmented by key regional partners
  • Global fulfillment of materials and virtual labs via a single strategic training partner
  • Price adaptation to fit local-market currencies and demand
  • SonicWall global ATP managers to ensure content, delivery and lab experience are consistent worldwide
  • Proctoring service to ensure certification authenticity for both students and sponsoring partners

What happened to Network Security Basic Administration (NSBA)?

For the last 10 years, SonicWall offered a series of technical certification courses to its partners, customers and employees. The core certification training was focused on foundational understanding of network security, particularly basic administration found in the SonicWall Network Security Basic Administration (NSBA) course.

With a focus on training network security administrators, NSBA provided students with a broad overview of network security technology and the skills needed to configure and administer a basic SonicWall firewall appliance.

While this course satisfied initial learning objectives, student feedback indicated the content was not sufficient to meet the needs of deeper skillsets (e.g., installation, management and troubleshooting). Students left the course feeling they needed additional in-depth technical training and expertise.

In addition, due to a widespread number of ATPs around the world, student experience varied by geography and instructor. The changes to the course and the improvement of the ATP strategy ensure SonicWall will deliver best-in-class technical training to its partners and customers.

For individuals who completed the NSBA exam and hold a current CSSA certification, SonicWall will continue to acknowledge these important certifications through March 2020. Students wishing to re-certify an expiring CSSA certification will, however, be required to complete the new SNSA course and certification.

To enroll in the new SNSA program, students may access the newly launched external SonicWall University site.

SonicWall Security Certification Courses

SonicWall offers other training and certification courses to support the needs of our partners, customers and employees. These include:

Network Security Advanced Administration (NSAA) Course

Designed to further enhance an individual’s network security technical skills, the NSAA course is available to students who have achieved either the CSSA or the SNSA certification.

This two-day, instructor-led course provides students with the latest information on application control, bandwidth management, troubleshooting and advanced networking. Completion of this course prepares students to complete the Certified SonicWall Security Professional (CSSP) certification exam.

Secure Mobile Access Basic Administration (SMABA) Course

The SMABA course provides students with the technical skills necessary to administer and manage SonicWall Secure Mobile Access (SMA) appliances.

The SMABA course covers the use of Appliance Management Control to provide secure access — to any application from any network — based on secure authentication and authorization policies. Completion of this course prepares students for the Certified SonicWall Security Administration (CSSA-SMABA) certification exam.

Secure Mobile Access Advanced Administration (SMAAA) Course

Recommended for engineers or administrators of SonicWall SMA devices installed in larger networks, the SMAAA course provides students with in-depth technical training covering deployment options, authentication and authorization policies and troubleshooting.

Completion of this course prepares students for the Certified SonicWall Security Professional (CSSP-SMAAA) certification exam.

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.