Peak 16: Dell SonicWall Readies Rollout Of New Cloud Global Management System

Dell SonicWall is readying the rollout of a new Cloud Global Management System (GMS), the company announced Monday, giving partners an early preview to the solution at its Peak 16 event in Las Vegas.

The Cloud GMS moves the central management system for SonicWall’s firewalls into the cloud, a management system that was previously only available on premise. Features include firewall management, wireless access point management, switch management, firewall reporting, licensing management, governance, compliance, and risk management.

What sets the solution apart from other vendors’ cloud-based management systems is that it is a one-to-one match for capabilities in the cloud to on premise, while other vendors only offer a subset of the on premise capabilities, said Dmitriy Ayrapetov, director, network security product management, Dell SonicWALL.

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The Peak 16 launch for partners is a preview of the solution, with a full rollout expected in the fourth quarter. Dell is looking to bring between 20 and 50 partners on board with the preview offering.

For partners, the launch gives the flexibility to offer customers a firewall management solution in the cloud, hybrid or on premise, Wilson Lee, senior product manager for Dell SonicWall, said. Beyond that, he said the cloud offering opens the door for a more powerful analytics engine, allowing for analytics of data traversing the firewall, forensics, threat data and more.

’This will be exclusive through our partner channel…It is there to enhance the partner’s business, to strength his security segment and do things that no other vendor out there does today,’ Lee said.

Ayrapetov said the Cloud GMS also lowers the barrier to entry for partners who want to be able to offer the solution to customers who can’t afford to host it on premise, or who simply would prefer to consume it as-a-service or wrapped into a managed services offering. Steve Pataky, vice president of worldwide sales at Dell SonicWall, said the solution will allow partners to ’think differently, a little differently, about their services’ and open the door to higher-value managed services offerings.

’I am going to challenge the partner to leverage the platform, not only deliver solutions in the way that customers are asking for but to truly leverage these tools to deliver better security,’ Pataky said.

Michael Crean, president of Solutions Granted, a Woodbridge, Va.-based solution provider that works with SonicWall, said the platform ought to allow partners trying to scale their business to overcome obstacles that tend to make expansion prohibitively expensive.

’As partners continue to grow and scale their business, and want to become solutions providers that provide more than just a box, one of the things that has always been difficult. It has been the barrier to entrance. You have to have servers, licensing, and that can become a very expensive proposition. For partners looking to get in and start providing value to customers, I think it’s an excellent idea.’

Crean, a long-time SonicWall partner, also said the platform signals SonicWall’s return to being a 100 percent channel company. ’I’m looking forward to the new ownership of SonicWall,’ Crean said. ’I’m looking to get back to the way things used to be, total channel. Any time you have a channel-only focus, and you align yourself with that company, there’s not compeition. They have no other way of delivering to customer but the channel, so they’re going to do nothing but work together for both your best interests, and you’re both going to be successful.’