SonicWALL’s NSA delivers 5 times more Performance

SonicWALL has released its SonicWALL Network Security Appliance Series (NSA) for the mid-enterprise, which is said to be aimed at helping mid-sized businesses benefit from multi-function network security, without compromising network performance or manageability. The NSA Series multi-core platform, which first appeared in the E-Class Appliances launched in 2007, is believed to be available for mid-size organizations to help manage their security in an increasingly complex network environment. These appliances are expected to allow IT administrators to better control, secure and authorize network access, thereby reducing security lapses and dramatically improving visibility of network activity and application use.

The rise of Web 2.0 applications, the growth of inbound and outbound network activity and the increased utilization of network resources have led to growing challenges in terms of securing networks and gaining greater insight into data. With new applications being used and communication growing both inside and outside of an organization, it has never been more important for an IT department to gain full control across the corporate network. With unprecedented inspection performance, the NSA Series is expected to provide administrators much deeper intelligence over their network infrastructure and delivers a tremendous increase in network efficiency and productivity. Using massively paralleled processes to classify and then inspect networked applications, the NSA series identifies unknown connections and gives administrators back complete control of networked communications. The NSA Series also breaks through performance barriers using a combination of SonicWALL’s patented Reassembly Free DPI (RFDPI) and purpose-built multi-core acceleration hardware, which also appears in the E-Class Appliances. This technology is available in products specifically designed to help mid-size organizations manage their security in an increasingly complex and high-speed network environment. 

According to Shubhomoy Biswas, Country Manager, SonicWALL India, “It is a UTM with multi-core CPU, used in server with capability to work with much faster rate for multi-tasking activities. This is a next-generation product for multi-packet inspection. The throughput has gone five times high, but the price remains the same. It has been the only product with us which is first in the world. Those people who are already using the UTM will have an upgradation path. We will take back the old box and give them the new box with some incremental price.” 

There must be around 2,000 customers using SonicWALL’s products across India and the company offers all the people to use this new product. 

SonicWall understands Channel partners have a role to educate the customers about this new product. “If they are planning to change their UTM box, we will offer them the next-gen box with a special price. This next-gen box can support starting from 100 users to 10,000 products. We have launched a huge brand awareness programme, which will include certification, roadshow etc. We have already started trainings in all the cities, including B- and C-class cities through Redington and Select – the distribution partners,” Biswas added. 

Biswas elaborated, “This product supports 64-bit computing. It generates raw power for deeply inspecting the packet. This year, we want to make sure that all the customers should be fully aware of the fifth-gen products. I will be focussing on every segment and we have been working in many of the government sectors. Right at the moment, we have three persons and in turn they will train the key persons.”

Biswas further added, “As far as support is concerned, we have the toll-free number, which connects to our customer support centre in Bangalore.” 

Asked about whether this new product has been gone through various test beds, he answers, “This product has been beta tested in various places worldwide. We will also look forward to the channel partners to support so that they can make more margin. As of now, we have 90 medallion partners across the country.” 

Designed to simplify security solutions, the NSA series claims to feature the next- generation in UTM protection. Combining multiple protection technologies, the NSA series includes intrusion prevention, advanced file and content anti-virus/anti-spyware inspection to provide a comprehensive solution to protect against a wide array of network attacks, including viruses, spyware, worms, Trojans and phishing attacks. The NSA series increases application visibility and offers data leakage capabilities for administrations through the integration of Application Firewall.

SonicWALL’s NSA appliances are also said to utilize the RFDPI engine to eliminate threats over unlimited file sizes without affecting processing time. The NSA Series multi-core acceleration combined with RFDPI means performance is no longer bound by overtaxed hardware or limited to pre-defined file inspection capabilities. Rather, the NSA Series maximizes application performance and scalability to achieve new levels of network efficiency. The NSA series also provides safety from both internal and external attacks as well as application vulnerabilities by scanning against multiple application types and protocols. 

At the heart of the NSA series is the SonicWALL multi-core performance architecture, which is said to have been specifically designed for high-speed internal and external network protection, VPN implementations and deployment flexibility. The new platform uses its multiple processing cores to dramatically increase throughput and inspection capabilities while keeping power consumption nearly constant and lowering total cost of ownership. 

In addition to its processing power, the NSA series also features wireless LAN (WLAN) and a range of ports making it an ideal solution for wireless and wired applications requiring high-speed access and heavy workgroup segmentation.

Additional features of the NSA series include: -
SonicWALL Clean VPN: A DPI architecture, assuring mobile user connections and branch office traffic are decontaminated to prevent vulnerabilities and malicious code from being introduced into the corporate network. 

- Standards-based VoIP: Incorporating VoIP capabilities to provide the highest levels of security for every element of VoIP infrastructure. 

- Secure Distributed Wireless LAN Services: The NSA can function as a secure wireless switch and controller that automatically detects and configures SonicWALL’s wireless points, SonicPoints

. - Advanced Routing Services and Networking Features: Built-in routing services that provide full support for Open Shortest Path First (OSPF) and Router Information Protocol (RIP)

. - Award Winning Global Management System (GMS): Enabling the user to manage, enforce policies and configure all appliances on the network at a central location.

Ray Turilli, Network Services Manager, ASA Tire Systems, said, “Our full-service ASP network supports 50 client organizations, each ranging up to a dozen locations, and it is growing all the time, so our solution needed to secure large loads of traffic at peak times. Deploying the NSA 3500, let us ensure that our clients were fully protected at gigabit throughput, giving us the freedom to take on larger clients and expand our hosted ecommerce services.” 

“The ever-changing landscape of security threats and network productivity issues, weaken the control point for administrators. Customers want a continually evolving Unified Threat Management solution that offers secure real-time internal and external network protection without compromising network performance. With this in mind, we designed the NSA series from the ground up with multi-core acceleration hardware and multi-function security capabilities delivering unprecedented performance and inspection capabilities, making communication networks extremely efficient and predictable,” said, Jon Kuhn, Director of Product Marketing, SonicWALL.