The network security provider SonicWALL ranks at the top in what IDC calls a “new category of security appliances”– unified threat management, or UTM. According to the research firm, UTM appliances will take the market share away from the traditional firewall/Virtual Private Network appliances (VPNs), which has 51 per cent of the global share.

IDC forecasts growth in UTM at 19 per cent compound annual growth rate and predicts a market worth $1.99 billion by 2008 out of the total $3.45-billion market. SonicWALL’s products integrate the best security applications in their classes’– firewalls, intrusion prevention/protection, gateway anti-virus, content filtering, and anti-s pyware, anti-spam, together on one platform.

A blend of innovative technology, high performance, reliability and cost-effectiveness have contributed to the emergence of SonicWALL’s UTM solution as a worldwide leader in providing security solutions to meet the current and future security needs of the companies.

SonicWALL believes it has the technology that will be much in demand once the customers know about it. Shubhomoy Biswas, Country Manager, SonicWALL India, said, “The entire security space appliances are now playing a bigger role in the SMB space. So, what we are looking at India is that the market is huge here.

” He is confident that SonicWALL will continue to grow faster.”“We are far superior to others. Once the awareness comes in, it will be all the more easy. IDC’s last report ranks us as number one UTM vendor for the last three consecutive quarters worldwide both in volume and value.

” Though SonicWALL’s integrated network security platform is relatively new in the market, with the introduction of first UTM in January 2005. The company, in no time, came to the forefront and emerged a leader in the world within months. Before 2005, the company was focussed on firewall and VPN solutions.

SonicWALL’s commitment to India is supreme. The company

understands the enormity of the Indian market. My idea is to double the turnover in 2006 for SonicWALL in India. And the market is very big.”

SonicWALL has appointed Mumbai-based IT Secure Software Pvt. Ltd. and Select Technologies as its distributors for the Indian market. Recently, SonicWALL has introduced an SSL-VPN box at a very attractive price – less than Rs.2 lakh worldwide. “Catering to 100 concurrent users, the box has gateway anti-virus, anti-spyware, Content filtering services, etc., which a customer can plug next to a traditional firewall and get a complete UTM experience,” said Biswas. The product – SSL VPN 2000 – was launched in Bangalore in the month of November.

Training is at the top of SonicWALL’s mind when it comes to resellers and system integrators. “What SonicWALL is doing in India is that SIs and resellers are being properly trained. They should be knowledgeable and fully aware of what is possible and impossible. This enables them to give the message to the end-customers,” adds Biswas.

Channel Empowerment

While dealing with a technology product, awareness is something, which cannot be lost sight of. SonicWALL is well aware of this. “We are doing lots of events directly with end-customers. Purely awareness events, these are being held right across the country so that customers get to know what we are.

” Recognizing the potential of the Indian market, SonicWALL is turning its attention to increase its sales in the country.

“My idea is to double the turnover in 2006 for SonicWALL in India. The market is very big. We do a lot of schemes for our partners to incentivize them,” he adds.

Sending the partners to exotic locations is one of the schemes which the company offers from time to time.

In India, SonicWALL has rolled out a partner programme that creates incentives for reselling managed security services based on its platforms. The programme known as the medallion programme is divided into two levels – gold and silver. The partners in India fall in the second category. The company will introduce the first level in India in due course of time.

Presently, the company has around 40 partners across the country, which will be doubled in this year. By the end of this year, the company expects to have 100 partners. These partners will cater to every part of India. The SonicWALL Medallion Partner Programme is a robust business development programme for resellers who are interested in growing their security business using SonicWALL products and solutions. With an installed base of over 500,000 units, SonicWALL is the leader in Internet security appliances for small to medium businesses. Its security solutions are used across a broad range of markets, including SOHO, SMB, Enterprise, service providers, government, education, healthcare and retail.

“We are also chalking out plans to organize a number of events in the B-class cities. There is a huge growth requirement. Within a space of one year, the requirement for a B-class city has swelled from 15 units to 87.”

Finally

R & D plays a crucial role in the SonicWALL’s scheme of things. The company has a 24-hour response team. The response team is an absolute must for security companies. How fast one can get the signature is of utmost importance to ward off virus threats. SonicWALL has recently acquired two US-based companies, EnKoo and Lasso Logic. EnKoo makes remote access appliances and Lasso Logic is into content filtering. The company plans to incorporate EnKoo’s technology into its own SSL-VPN 2000 remote-access product.