Monitoring is another area that SonicWall has vastly improved. The unit's new security dashboard offers a quick view of the status of the device and the related security services so administrators can quickly tell what is happening on the network and drill down into more detail with a simple click of the mouse. The NSA 3500 also offers historical data and can generate comprehensive reports. Those reports can demonstrate the effectiveness of the product, help administrators understand traffic flow and categorize usage.

The real power of the NSA 3500 comes from the UTM capabilities. Here, the deep packet inspection engine works in conjunction with anti-malware capabilities to examine each packet for a multitude of threats. Normally, that would be a slow and processor-intensive process. The NSA 3500 makes quick work of the packet analysis thanks to the unit's multicore processor. Its four processor cores can be assigned to handle different tasks, such as anti-virus or spam analysis. That simple implementation of a now common technology can make all the difference in the world when it comes to performance.

Solution providers will find that the unit offers a number of optional services, including multiple anti-virus engines and anti-spam services. Each of the services is based upon yearly support contracts that a partner can sell to the end customer. SonicWall makes it relatively easy for a partner to get started with the NSA series of products. The company offers discounts, training and leads to partners and uses a multitier channel program to define partner benefits.

Simply put, VARs looking to enter the UTM appliance market will be well served by SonicWall's NSA series of appliances and the NSA 3500 proves to be an excellent starting point to bring smaller enterprises up to speed with UTM.