SonicWall keeps focus on MSP channel

SonicWall has been focusing on increasing the enhanced support and technology it can provide managed service providers (MSPs).

The security player is meeting with MSPs – both current and fresh prospects – at the MSP event in Excel this week, following its recent launch of more services for partners.

The latest offerings add to the SonicPlatform that has been designed with MSPs in mind. It included a managed protection service suite (MPSS) that includes firewall management with 24/7 monitoring, backed by the vendor’s SonicSentry Network Operations Center (NOC) team.

Jason Carter, chief revenue officer at SonicWall, said that customers were looking to MSPs to help them get to a zero-trust environment and that the demands of cyber insurance were also driving demand for robust security solutions.

“As a network security company for the past 30-plus years, we have a really strong reputation in the SME firewall market, but we realise that we must focus on managed security services,” he said. “So, that has been our mission here over the past 18 months – transforming to meet the needs of the MSP, the MSSP, and delivering on managed security services.”

SonicWall acquired Sonic Sentry in December 2023 and has made the 24/7 SOPC and NOC teams now available to its MSP community. In addition, the firm picked up the zero-trust solution from Banyan Security and made the technology an option for channel partners moving to the cloud looking to replace legacy SSL solutions.

“The opportunity we see is [around] the pressure that partners have to offer zero-trust offerings to their customers – specifically driven by the demand surrounding cyber insurance and the vulnerabilities that are associated with VPN in particular – [and this] continues to be [what] drives the switch over to zero-trust offerings,” said Carter.

SonicWall has been developing its MSP proposition for the past few years, with the company working with a wide spectrum of partners.

“When you look at the journey of the MSP that we have in our community, we have two groups that we’ve created solutions for,” said Carter.

“We have the entry-level MSP which may be dabbling into becoming an MSSP and trying to learn how to deliver managed security services. We have a couple of different options for them to start to deliver managed security services, whether that’s getting down to the end point, doing some NDR options or doing some managed services in the cloud across our entire XDR platform.

“At the other end are mature MSPs that have built it out on their own and have that mature practice. Sometimes there’s a customer on their end who they may not have the time or the resource to continue to take that type of customer on, so they may be looking to offload some of those customers off to a vendor. We’re seeing quite a few of those MSPs where they need to offload a bit of security management on to us,” he added.

Carter said the efforts to support and expand its MSP base has paid dividends and the firm would continue to deliver services and support for the community.

“Our pure focus right now is ensuring that we’re continuing to innovate and evolve and deliver the simplest, most intuitive, most secure solutions for the MSP community. That’s our goal, and we’re going to continue to evolve on that,” he said.