SonicWALL Launches 40Gbps Firewall; Virtualized Security

SonicWALL is launching “SuperMassive” firewall and a new virtualized appliance for e-mail security. And it’s all happening at the Interop show in Las Vegas, Nevada. Here are the details.

First, a little background: Nearly 40% of MSPmentor 100 survey participants say they leverage SonicWall solutions as part of their managed services portfolio. That’s one of the highest figures for any vendor tracked in our third-annual survey results, which MSPmentor published in February 2010. As one source in the distribution industry recently told MSPmentor, “SonicWall has one of the most consistent partner programs, so MSPs flock to them.”

Looking ahead, the SuperMassive project is part of SonicWall’s strategy for next-generation firewall technology. The new tech can provide application control plus complete malware protection at 40 Gigabits a second. No latency is introduced to the network at all (SonicWall claims). The ‘project’ actively includes three of SonicWall’s integral technologies:

Plus, it’s allegedly more than 10 times the speed of current technology found on the market today. The idea behind the 40Gbs is to end the issue Enterprise IT has between performance-per-security bottlenecks when dealing with high volume of traffic. It’s also being geared towards enterprise organizations who are “struggling to deploy the latest technologies such as converged communications, data center consolidation, and Web 2.0.” As you might imagine, all that ‘stuff’ through a tiny security hole gets pretty tight.

And SonicWall is on a security kick with their foray into virtualization. SonicWALL has simultaneously released their Email Security Virtual appliance. It’s designed to provide ease of use, and ease of deployment all while being scalable. As do a lot of modern e-mail security appliances, SonicWall’s appliance does anti-spam as well as standard security.

Part of the virtualization announcement is SonicWall’s ongoing efforts to develop their go-to-market strategy for a complete suite of virtual security appliances. It’s part of their vision “to deliver Dynamic Security for the Global Network.”

Alas, we didn’t have time to catch up with SonicWall at Interop (since our blogging team is tied up at HP Americas Partner Conference and Cisco Partner Summit this week). But we’ll keep watching SonicWall from afar.

Additional reporting by Joe Panettieri. Sign up for MSPmentor’s weekly Enewsletter, Webcasts and Resource Center. And follow us via RSS; Facebook; Identi.ca; and Twitter. Plus, check out more MSP voices at www.MSPtweet.com.