SonicWall Brings Next Generation Unified Threat Management to the SMB Market.
By Frank Ohlhorst | Posted 2008-10-17
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The NSA 240 UTM Appliance promises to bring enterprise-class security to small and midsize business via the channel by combining all major security technologies into an easily managed device.
When it comes to the NSA 240 from SonicWall, perhaps the question should be "what doesn’t it do?" Built upon the idea that all network traffic needs to be monitored and validated, the NSA relies on Re-Assembly Free Deep Packet Inspection (RFDPI) to provide Intrusion Protection, Anti-Virus, Anti-Spyware, Content Filtering, and Application Management in a single, affordable desktop appliance.
While UTM appliances are nothing new to the SMB market, the NSA 240 brings capabilities and a feature set not found in other devices. For example, the NSA 240 includes support for 3G wireless networking cards via a PC card slot in the device. That allows wireless broadband to be used for connectivity - where wired connections do not exist. 3G networking can also be used for fail over and traffic bonding. For some remote locations, such as construction job sites or undeveloped areas, the inclusion of 3G support is a must-have, bringing Internet connectivity to areas where none existed before.
Of course, other solutions exist that allow 3G wireless networks to be created, but none offer the integrated UTM capability, along with VPN support and all of the security features found in the NSA 240.
The product offers a very robust feature set and includes:
- Deep Packet Inspection Firewall.
- Gateway anti-virus, anti-spyware, intrusion prevention, and application firewall for perimeter and internal protection.
- Application Firewall, business application prioritization and QoS.
- 2-core Architecture that supports 600 Mbps Stateful Packet Inspection Firewall, 150 Mbps 3DES and AES VPN Throughput, 110 Mbps Full Unified Threat Management (UTM) Inspection.
- Three (3) 10/100/1000 Copper Gigabit Ethernet and six (6) 10/100 FastEthernet interfaces
- Automated and Dynamic Security Updates.
- Stateful Active/Passive Failover, ISP Failover, and WAN Redundancy
- 802.1q VLAN or SonicWALL PortShield Segmentation
- Integrated Network Security Policy and Management.
Frank J. Ohlhorst is the Executive Technology Editor for eWeek Channel Insider and brings with him over 20 years of experience in the Information Technology field.He began his career as a network administrator and applications program in the private sector for two years before joining a computer consulting firm as a programmer analyst. In 1988 Frank founded a computer consulting company, which specialized in network design, implementation, and support, along with custom accounting applications developed in a variety of programming languages.In 1991, Frank took a position with the United States Department of Energy as a Network Manager for multiple DOE Area Offices with locations at Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL), Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPL), Argonne National Laboratory (ANL), FermiLAB and the Ames Area Office (AMESAO). Frank's duties included managing the site networks, associated staff and the inter-network links between the area offices. He also served at the Computer Security Officer (CSO) for multiple DOE sites. Frank joined CMP Technology's Channel group in 1999 as a Technical Editor assigned to the CRN Test Center, within a year, Frank became the Senior Technical Editor, and was responsible for designing product testing methodologies, assigning product reviews, roundups and bakeoffs to the CRN Test Center staff.In 2003, Frank was named Technology Editor of CRN. In that capacity, he ensured that CRN maintained a clearer focus on technology and increased the integration of the Test Center's review content into both CRN's print and web properties. He also contributed to Netseminar's, hosted sessions at CMP's Xchange Channel trade shows and helped to develop new methods of content delivery, Such as CRN-TV.In September of 2004, Frank became the Director of the CRN Test Center and was charged with increasing the Test Center's contributions to CMP's Channel Web online presence and CMP's latest monthly publication, Digital Connect, a magazine geared towards the home integrator. He also continued to contribute to CMP's Netseminar series, Xchange events, industry conferences and CRN-TV.In January of 2007, CMP Launched CRNtech, a monthly publication focused on technology for the channel, with a mailed audience of 70,000 qualified readers. Frank was instrumental in the development and design of CRNTech and was the editorial director of the publication as well as its primary contributor. He also maintained the edit calendar, and hosted quarterly CRNTech Live events.In June 2007, Frank was named Senior Technology Analyst and became responsible for the technical focus and edit calendars of all the Channel Group's publications, including CRN, CRNTech, and VARBusiness, along with the Channel Group's specialized publications Solutions Inc., Government VAR, TechBuilder and various custom publications. Frank joined Ziff Davis Enterprise in September of 2007 and focuses on creating editorial content geared towards the purveyors of Information Technology products and services. Frank writes comparative reviews, channel analysis pieces and participates in many of Ziff Davis Enterprise's tradeshows and webinars. He has received several awards for his writing and editing, including back to back best review of the year awards, and a president's award for CRN-TV. Frank speaks at many industry conferences, is a contributor to several IT Books, holds several records for online hits and has several industry certifications, including Novell's CNE, Microsoft's MCP.Frank can be reached at frank.ohlhorst@ziffdavisenterprise.com
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