SonicWALL Lifts Barriers to Anytime, Anywhere Remote Access for Small and Medium Businesses

SonicWALL, Inc. (NASDAQ: SNWL), today announced availability on September 30 of the SonicWALL SSL-VPN 2000, first in a new series of SSL-VPN appliances that make remote access affordable and easy for small and medium businesses. Integrating seamlessly with third party firewalls, the SSL-VPN 2000 provides organizations with scalable remote access that is simple to deploy, manage and use at a fraction of the total cost of most other SSL-VPN appliances.

When deployed with a network secured by SonicWALL's Unified Threat Management (UTM)-enabled PRO or TZ series firewalls, the SSL-VPN 2000 delivers enhanced UTM protection to remote users. SonicWALL is the worldwide market share leader in UTM technology according to IDC's latest worldwide tracker report, September 2005.

A SonicWALL internal study of over 1,000 respondents indicates that 80 percent of small and medium businesses use some form of VPN. Of those using VPN, more than 85 percent use IPSec VPN whereas only 18 percent are using SSL-VPN. This difference is due largely to the high per-user cost of current SSL-VPN options. Unlike comparable solutions that charge a per-tunnel licensing fee, SonicWALL SSL-VPN appliances have no restrictions on the number of concurrent user tunnels, allowing users to scale remote access connectivity as their organizations grow.

Using SSL-VPN, mobile employees require only a standard Web browser to launch a Web portal that is unique to each user. From this portal, the user has secure access to e-mail, files, applications and internal Web sites. The SonicWALL SSL-VPN 2000 makes remote access affordable, simple, powerful and secure, creating a new standard in SSL-VPN for small and medium businesses. With this new product set, SonicWALL now offers a full spectrum of secure networking solutions including high-security IPSec-based VPN products.

"More than ever, businesses are relying on increased productivity from their mobile workforce as a key component of corporate growth strategy," said Michael Suby, senior analyst, Stratecast. "This increases the need to provide mobile and remote workers with access to company resources such as e-mail, files, intranets and applications without compromising network security. By the same token, businesses need affordable solutions that deliver secure, clientless and easy-to-use remote access while minimizing maintenance and support. Given this backdrop, simple alternatives to IPSec VPN are required, indicating a rock solid opportunity for SonicWALL's SSL-VPN offering."

Web Creations & Consulting, a Salina, Kansas-based computer reseller and hosting provider, has helped several SMBs improve productivity by developing remote access solutions. "SSL-VPN is a great alternative for smaller organizations, as it's less complicated to use and administer than IPSec-VPN," said Brent Sadler, vice operations manager, Web Creations and Consulting, LLC. "For example, we've installed SonicWALL's SSL-VPN 2000 at El Dorado National, the nation's largest manufacturer of convention and hotel shuttle buses. Their outside sales force is now able to securely access corporate information, no matter where they are located. The SSL VPN solution from SonicWALL, in conjunction with other threat defense technology, is proving to be a reliable, convenient and secure way to improve communications without burdening IT support."

Using only a standard Web browser, users can access files and file systems, Web-based applications, HTTP and HTTPS intranets. For more powerful capabilities, SonicWALL NetExtender technology, an ActiveX client downloaded transparently via the Web browser, enables access to any TCP/IP based application residing on the user's laptop plus flexible network access depending on policies set by the network administrator. Using ActiveX or Java components, NetExtender also provides access to applications installed on desktop machines or hosted on an application server, allows full remote control of remote desktop or server machines, and supports Terminal Services, VNC, Telnet and SSH.

Administrators will find the SSL-VPN 2000 very simple to deploy and manage. An intuitive graphical user interface guides the administrator quickly through the installation process while providing granular policy configuration controls for centralized, fine-grained management over individual user access to specific network resources.