By: Dave Russell, VP, Enterprise Strategy, Veeam

Ransomware attacks have bitten a gaping hole in the pockets of businesses who are having to pay extortionate ransoms in response to highly targeted attacks by sophisticated criminal organisations. The problem has only worsened with the onset of mass remote working. The extension of the office’s boundaries into online and remote locations has exposed severe vulnerabilities, and criminals are all too willing to take advantage.

Right now, a new ransomware attack will occur every 11 seconds. To put this in context, in the five minutes it takes you to read this article, 27 businesses will have been attacked by ransomware. The best piece of advice on ransomware is not to give in and pay. But despite the majority of businesses will pay the ransom that this attack demands. Many feel under extreme pressure to limit the damage of downtime caused by ransomware, and the quickest resolution is to pay up.

It’s not a surprise that so many have chosen to pay when they’re already grappling with the challenges and pressures of operating throughout the risky business terrain that COVID-19 has created. However, this is simply encouraging cyber-attackers to continue exploiting this lucrative illegal market, as is evident from the 600% uplift in attacks since COVID-19 first emerged.

On a positive note, businesses and governments have recognised that this can’t continue. Ransomware is now on the agenda of every boardroom, and even made the cut for discussion at the G7, as well as numerous other diplomatic talks between global leaders. Now is the time to think about modern data protection and its future. And now is the time to bite ransomware back.

This is organised crime

It’s easy to forget that there’s a criminal behind the ransomware that makes itself at home within your business system. While it may once have been deemed something loitering on the web and only harmful if clicked on, many are starting to recognise the severe, complex, and targeted nature that ransomware really has. This is organised crime, and it works innovatively to infiltrate your business and your supply chain. It quite honestly poses a genuine threat to entire industries and communities.

So how can we start clamping down on the perpetrators behind this? The downside to such a connected and digital world means an attacker can operate in completely different areas of the world, making it difficult to prosecute using the same legal system your business is subject to. The reality is that a clamp down of this scale is going to require international co-operation and government action beyond anything we’ve seen in the cybersecurity sphere. And of course, this is going to take time, which, as you know, is something businesses don’t have when facing constant threats.

Therefore, while we wait for these political interventions to happen, businesses must be fully prepared for the ongoing onslaught of ransomware attacks, especially now they’re operating in remote locations. Previous cybersecurity measures won’t be enough, we have to adapt to the enemy by deploying modern data protection measures.

Think like a hacker

In the same was that a detective has to think like a criminal to solve a crime, the only way businesses will successfully protect themselves sufficiently from cyberattacks is to think like the hackers. They’re relentless, hyper-aware, and stringent. Employers and employees must act the same to stop vulnerabilities from opening up.

Good digital hygiene must become second nature, as opposed to something practiced for a week following annual cyber security training, and forgotten about until the next one. Failure to patch software should create the same attention as failing to lock up the office overnight. Not having a disaster recovery plan is akin to skipping contents insurance. We can’t simply think about security in the physical space because the enemies are operating in the digital one.

Another important aspect is thinking about the hacker’s success rate. In many cases they’ll spend all day attacking systems. They dedicate their time to evolve and innovate their attacks to overcome the security barriers that are holding them back. We need to anticipate they will eventually be able to do this, even if the best cybersecurity defences are in place. As we can see from the number of businesses paying ransoms, an attack can cause enough damage to push businesses into paying out rather than taking alternative routes.

It’s up to every organisation across every industry to invest in modern data protection practices to minimise the impact of ransomware attacks. Viewing attacks as an inevitability is the first step towards creating a more cyber-secure culture, with employees who are more educated and aware of ransomware. At the same time, businesses need to have the right safeguards in place to minimise disruption, including anti-virus software and firewalls, plus continuous backup and recovery to offer adequate insurance against the crippling effects of ransomware.

If the worst happens, and your systems are compromised, the business won’t collapse, and the attacker won’t get everything they want. The cybersecurity landscape may feel rocky right now, but there are steps we can and should take to better protect ourselves from the damages. It’s time to bite the ransomware hackers back.

Immersive screens, virtual desktops and AI assistants will boost the next wave of end-users

By: Andrew Brinded, Senior Vice President EMEA Sales, Nutanix

To understand what end-user computing may look like in 2030, first think about how you work today and consider how you worked 10, 20, 30 years ago. And if you’re lucky enough to be too young, ask a colleague.

The Seventies. The knowledge worker of the 1970s had a fixed-line telephone, sheaves of paper documents, possibly a typewriter, memos for written communications, a legion of clerks, a typing pool and precious little other information infrastructure.

The Eighties. As hairstyles got shorter, the office expanded to include early personal computers. IT began to talk more to end-users and business analysts’ requests for data to be hauled off mainframes and mid-range servers became more frequent.

The Nineties. Cheaper PCs, laptops, the web, local-area networks, email, mobile phones and client/server IT made this the decade where personal productivity soared.

The Noughties to now. Smartphones abounded, WiFi became ubiquitous, tablets soared, and office workers were released from the shackles of their desks to be effective from anywhere, often selecting their own devices too. Architects design spaces for workers to bump into each other, brainstorm and co-create with far-flung colleagues and partners.

But what of the knowledge worker in 2030? Where will this person work from and what tools will s/he use to become optimally effective? It’s a fair bet that this person will need to be creative because nobody wants to compete with China (or Indonesia or any low-cost economy) on price, so innovation will be key. It’s also likely that co-creation and co-curation will become more important, so we need tools and spaces that are fun, funky and conducive to getting creative juices flowing. Here are some ideas of what we might see.

Everything is virtual. Desktop PCs will disappear almost entirely except for power-user workstations. Virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) will prevail because users will want to see their working environment from any device, whether that’s a laptop, tablet, phone, smart watch, smart speaker or something else. We can expect ubiquitous compute capacity everywhere: in domestic appliances, in-car infotainment systems, perhaps baton or cylinder computers with roll up flexible screens, smartphones that can double as PCs, Star Trek-style smart microphones that we pin to clothing.

Streaming is everywhere. Once, a lack of support for advanced graphics was the criticism of VDI but that argument is becoming obsolete. Google’s cloud-based Stadia games platform will even support 8k streaming at 150 frames per second. That could mean the computer of the future effectively returning to be a dumb terminal and with hardware costing perhaps tens of pounds rather than hundreds.

Massive immersive screens. With such great streaming quality, screens may be one of the hottest areas of end-user computing change. It’s possible that we will go from today’s curved OLED screens to immersive pod units where we are transported into another world of crystal-clear audio and life-like visuals. Your colleague in the US takes a virtual seat in a simulacrum of a meeting room alongside you and calls are finally perfect, thanks to faster broadband and clusters of routers.

Alexa and her friends are coming to you. Voice assistants will become critical to the business user interface, meaning we can control everything from anywhere, hands-free. Bolstered by AI, search will be simplified. Can’t find that file? Just say: ‘Computer find me that document I wrote about end-user computing in 2030’… and there it is.

Instant computing. Faster boot sequences helped by advanced memory will make computing faster than ever with fewer irritating wait states. Storage becomes less important if streaming dominates but NAND Flash and similar technologies will help with lightning-fast caching and buffering.

Autonomic self-correction. Security and error detection will advance to the point that helpdesk calls are reduced to a minimum as AI and Machine Learning detect and anticipate signs of imminent failures or vulnerabilities and take action without user action.

Long-lasting power. Advanced battery chemistries will let computers run for days on end while solar and wireless charging become ubiquitous.

Faster input. Tools such as Otter provide the ability to transcribe meeting notes with high degrees of accuracy, while Zoom offers a transcription service for conferencing sessions. Expect more automation of clerical tasks such as automatically storing files in a logical place or anticipating next actions based on previous behaviour.

Homes that look like offices, offices that look like homes. For 20 years, designers have created office spaces that bring out the ‘kidult’ in all of us. Games rooms, comfy sofas, work-out rooms and running tracks abound, but now the tide is turning the other way as the design experts figure out how to bring work capabilities into domestic spaces. So, look out for pull-out pods and desks, beds that turn into workspaces, TVs that morph into computers screens and more.

Some of this may sound fanciful and the truth is that it’s hard to predict progress with any great degree of accuracy, but think of how working life has changed over the decades and these ideas are far from absurd. In order to win the battle for talent, companies need to provide attractive working environments and great tools for the incoming generation of workers. By tapping into the innate human capacity to innovate, companies that offer the best environments will excel and win over the best people.

The pandemic has had many effects on people around the globe but one common ground we can all share is that we are spending more time at home and have rediscovered the need to have a good home entertainment system that gives us a true cinema experience right in our living room.

With the new Anker Nebula Cosmos Max 4K UHD TV Home Theatre and Entertainment Projector, we can bring the cinema experience into our home. The superb image quality is perfect for watching movies, sports events, games and more, complete with 1,500 ANSI-lumen image plus Dolby Digital Plus and Sound Dimension®. The Cosmos’s speakers have been optimized to deliver 360° of true 3D audio.

Another highlight includes the adjustable Image Size. You can change the size of Cosmos Max’s image without ever having to move the projector, courtesy of the built-in digital zoom. Max out your movies at 150 inches, or scale things down for a more intimate affair, all with a simple tap of the remote.

For those who look for image quality and love being nostalgic by watching movies and personal videos from the past, Nebula Cosmos Max upscales everything. It breathes new life into your old DVDs, videos, and even live TV broadcasts thanks to Hybrid Log Gamma (HLG). It also automatically detects when you’re watching non-HDR content and upscales it in real-time so everything you watch looks sensational.

Whether you want to indulge in an ice-cream-fueled Prime Video binge or watch the big game via the ESPN app, Cosmos has you covered with endless entertainment. Users can choose from over 5000 apps including Hulu, Disney+, HBO, and many more with Android TV. The Model Number D2150 comes in black and is stylishly designed to blend in with any home deco ambience.

What’s In The Box: Nebula Cosmos Max, remote, quick start guide, adapter, 12-month warranty, and our friendly customer service.

#GlobalTrendMonitor  #Anker #Nebula #CosmosMax #Cinema #magazineUAE #magazine #mediaUAE #UAEbusiness #myDubai 

Co-authors: Dave Russell, Vice President of Enterprise Strategy at Veeam and Rick Vanover, Senior Director of product Strategy at Veeam

When COVID-19 arrived in early 2020, enterprises’ first priority was to patch together a communications and information-sharing infrastructure that could sustain operations until work could return to normal. More than a year later, returns are on hold, and enterprises are rethinking their visions of “normal.” They’re reimagining their workplaces and their business practices – embracing more flexible models that take advantage of the benefits of edge technologies.

Edge computing is defined loosely as a model that brings computational, data storage and connectivity resources closer to the locations where they’re needed, saving bandwidth and accelerating response times. Edge technologies power millions of IoT applications in industrial, retail, healthcare and smart cities environments, and, prior to 2020, analysts expected an additional bump from virtual reality and 5G in the coming years.

Then the pandemic hit, and the need for edge technologies suddenly accelerated. As millions of workers shifted out of enterprise hubs into more remote locations, they put a strain on networks, creating increased latency and a greater need for computer power, capacity, and storage closer to the new network edge.

It’s not just workers connecting on Zoom occupying this new edge. Video editors working from home are transmitting huge files, schools are engaging thousands of students in online classes, and physicians are conducting remote health visits where high-res images are posted and circulated. Investing in edge solutions that process data locally and enable more seamless connections avoids having to slog through increasingly overburdened public networks.

The result: a boom in edge-related hardware, software and applications. Analysts are predicting a major growth spurt at the edge, rocketing up 30 percent a year to $44.0 billion by 2030.

As enterprises accelerate investments in digital transformation projects, edge technologies will open up new opportunities to succeed in the marketplace. Here are a few areas where they’ll play prominent roles.

Customer service

Customers, of course, can be demanding. They want choices, information, intuitive purchasing options, respect for their privacy and, at times, a little coddling. Businesses can respond better in transactional situations if they can have information and insights available in the moment. This plays right to the strengths of edge applications.

Retailers, for instance, can use edge devices with web caching functions to replicate online customer experiences in the physical world. They can capture customer information, apply insights from shopping patterns, process connections in real time and be ready to serve the customer better at key points of the buying journey.

Outside the store, changeable digital displays can broadcast pop-up sales to attract customers inside. As customers enter, the network connects to their personal devices and access their purchase history. Customers then can request customized coupons or connect to personalized shopper assistance. Inside the store, strategically positioned kiosks and screens display customized promotional offers based on each shopper’s buying patterns.

Sales associates can use digital assistant devices to check updated inventory levels or gather insider product information. Easy-to-use product finder displays can steer customers to the right products based on individual, self-selected preferences.

Security

The proliferation of edge computing applications has significant – and seemingly contradictory – ramifications for security.

On one hand, adding more nodes opens up more places vulnerable to attack. This will force IT security leaders to bolster their defenses to ensure that information and applications stored at the edge match the strength their applying inside the data center itself.

At the same time, edge computing’s decentralized nature brings some security benefits. If an edge device is breached, security teams can easily wall off the endpoint so the attack doesn’t spread to the whole network. They can also configure their edge models to keep more data at the endpoints and limit the amount of information that gets sent back to home office. That adds an extra layer of security, keeping threats away from the data center, where more mission-critical resources are stored.

To optimize the security of an edge-enabled system, organizations will need to establish strong governance programs to control the data that’s being generated, processed and transferred from individual sites.

Plus, since IoT devices are tough to secure, it’s important that the edge computing deployment emphasizes proper management of the devices themselves. They’ll need to establish policy-driven configuration enforcement and security for computing and storage, paying special attention to encryption of data at rest and in flight.

While edge security isn’t a new concept, the scale of the challenge has grown with the expansion of remote work and on-site IoT-related applications. Solving these edge security issues will be a top priority in 2021 and beyond.

Democratizing technology

Gartner identified democratization as one of its top ten strategic technology trends for the enterprise in 2020. While the projection focuses mainly on a broader sharing of technical and business domain expertise, it can be extended to include an increase in democratization of commerce itself – enabled by the growth of edge technologies.

The edge’s ability to aggregate, process and analyze data locally opens up new opportunities for entrepreneurial ventures outside major hubs of commerce. Data will be cheaper to manage, and it will be available to larger pools of talent. Startup and operational costs will be lower, creating a budding market for new ventures in new and existing industries.

The democratization will be driven, in part, by society’s move to remote work. Home-based businesses will create their own individual edge outlets, and organizations will establish regional edge hubs to serve growing numbers of remote employees and contractors. And, telecommunications providers will shore up edge hubs and leverage faster 5G to lighten the traffic loads that are bogging down today’s suddenly overburdened networks.

Gartner’s trend prediction projects four key elements of democratization to accelerate through 2023. These include the democratization of data and analytics (tools targeting data scientists expanding to target the professional developer community), development (AI tools to leverage in custom-developed applications), design (expanding on the low-code, no-code phenomena with automation of additional application development functions to empower the citizen-developer) and knowledge (non-IT professionals gaining access to tools and expert systems that empower them to exploit and apply specialized skills beyond their own expertise and training).

We will see edge technologies pushing commerce into the mix starting this year.

#GlobalTrendMonitor  #Veeam #Technology #Security #AI #IT #magazineUAE #magazine #mediaUAE #UAEbusiness #myDubai 

Interview with Ahmed Nasser Co-Founder of Odiggo

Shereen Shabnam

We recently had coffee at the Shangri La Dubai with Ahmed Nasser, Co-Founder and President of Odiggo, a one-stop-shop for everything you need for your vehicle. He tells us how the business started and how e-commerce is empowering the younger generation to come up with new ways to do business.

Odiggo is an app that connects all car owners with the best quality car parts at the lowest prices possible. It is perfect for those who wouldn’t know where to start when it comes to buying parts for their cars and need to know who has the capability to do the job and at what price.

The global market for the auto parts and accessories manufacturing industry is currently valued at US$2 Trillion and is one of the top 10 industries in the world. It is a $61 billion (AED224 billion) industry in the Middle East and Africa alone which is a brilliant opportunity for Odiggo to use its E-commerce expertise to transcend the market and become the leading company in the industry.

How did Odiggo start?

It started with Ahmed Omar who was keen on e-commerce after he sold his dad’s bike online and received part of the sales. His career and journey to Germany and the USA exposed him to the potential of e-commerce and on return to Cairo, he started  new ventures with friends. In 2017, Omar launched an online with friends for used and new cars and called it Kasr-Zero with a supporting online marketplace that offers car spare parts.

It was in 2019 that we set up Odiggo which means ‘drive’ and now has revenues that have increased from 6 million to 100 million.

How big are you?

We operate in Egypt and have just launched in the UAE. Our team and investors are all over the world but the core team is about 35 people strong.

What do you offer via the App and how does the back-end technology work?

We offer a one-stop-shop for everything you need for your vehicle and the app connects all car owners with the best quality car parts at the lowest prices possible with best service provider at your doorstep including offering customers free car washes.

Describe your target audience?

There are two apps – one for customer and one for supplier. We target individual car owners and look after any type of car. We are also getting requests for our services from businesses now as well.

Are there any expansion plans?

We intend to expand to Saudi and then to other parts of the world but we also intend to expand our services and look after not just cars but also bikes and trucks in the future.

How do you select suppliers?

There is a criteria as we initially focus on the top 20 who hold the highest market share because of their track record reputation and size. Once they get a taste of the reach we have, they stay and this encourages the rest of the market to come on board. Currently we are a market leader in Egypt because of the due diligence done on our suppliers.

What’s next for Odiggo?

We will be connecting the car directly with the app using our deep-tech dashboard. By doing this we will know the accurate diagnosis of the car at the right time. This offers the best customer experience as we hope to use AI technology for OBD (On-Board Diagnostics), and enhance vehicle’s self- diagnostic and reporting capability allowing us to get data to identify between 2-3K errors in a car. This is a gamechanger for us and will see us grow tenfold in the future.

#GlobalTrendMonitor #technology #App #Software #Odiggo #Business #interview #magazineUAE #magazine #mediaUAE #UAEbusiness #myDubai 

Virsec, the industry leader in application-aware workload protection, announced that regional companies emerging out of the pandemic are accelerating their investments into digital transformation. They are increasingly concerned about the everyday announcements of cybersecurity compromises at large and medium enterprises, global and regional.

As organizations face growing sophistication of cyberattacks, the demand for effective solutions is skyrocketing. Advanced attack techniques, that execute at runtime in the memory layer, have become mainstream and companies are struggling to combat them.

Virsec Security Platform delivers a powerful solution for container workload protection with runtime visibility and zero-dwell-time defense throughout running container images, including binaries, libraries, interpreted code, and memory.

“It is imperative we change the way we think about the protection of our assets and infrastructure. Conventional security tools, like blacklisting models, were designed to address yesterday’s challenges, and we can’t continue to accept these offerings as the ideal option to mitigate advanced threat scenarios,” said Bobby Gupta, Senior Vice President and Managing Director International, Virsec.

With more than 50 patents, Virsec provides the first and only application-aware workload protection platform that incorporates System Integrity Assurance, Application Control and Memory Protection into a single solution. Virsec delivers in-depth visibility across the entire workload and detects and blocks known and unknown threats that remain concealed by heuristic and endpoint security solutions.

“Security has entered a third wave, driven by the skyrocketing success of more damaging and sophisticated attacks across cloud workloads and virtual server infrastructure,” says Jim Routh, Chief Security Advisor and Board Participant at Virsec. “It is time for security to be re-evaluated at its deepest levels and approached holistically by integrating security into IT and application infrastructure in runtime across a broad range of IT environments and application languages. Virsec has pioneered this approach with its breakthrough platform.”

The Virsec solution maps the expected performance of each application on a workload and protects the memory those applications use to execute. Virsec ensures that the components of those applications are correct and unmodified before they are allowed to execute, and any deviation from the norm is treated as a threat.

Virsec also reported significant momentum in the first half of 2021 with strong revenue growth, strategic customer validation and testing, and industry acceptance of its non-traditional approach to reducing cyber threats.

Virsec’s growth correlates with increasing board-level concerns about the financial, safety, and intellectual property impacts of evolving threat scenarios and the subsequent need to have deeper visibility into application workloads at runtime.

By: PG Menon, Director of Marketing at Infoblox

Cloud-native technologies transform businesses at a global scale

Companies like Amazon and Netflix leveraged cloud technologies to go from being mail order companies to some of the world’s largest consumer on-demand businesses. Cloud-native technologies empowered them to make this transition by providing increased agility and productivity, improved scalability and reliability, and lower costs.

In a borderless enterprise identity is the new perimeter

DNS, DHCP and IP address management collectively automates network connectivity and provides visibility into network connected devices. They enable a foundational layer of visibility and security for your network. Network identity has long been used as a means for authentication and authorization because it ensures you are who you say you are, and, only allows you to do what you are permitted to do no matter where you are located and or your access method.

Identity now includes human users, devices and applications

In transitioning to cloud, the different types of cloud-native applications developed and deployed by organizations such as microservices, web applications or bots are inherently different than human identities and require additional oversight. For example, in operation, Kubernetes requires access to registries on the internet to download various containerized micro-services. There may be hundreds or even thousands of identities accessing resources across an enterprise network on a regular basis, each with its own unique set of circumstances.

Volume and variety of corporate identities are plaguing enterprise IT

Per IDC, it is not uncommon for applications to use their own LDAP directories. Managing those directories and controlling risk is a problem. Enterprise IT simply doesn’t have the level of visibility required to truly understand which identities are performing what actions on their critical resources across multiple and vastly different cloud operating models. Moreover, the identity teams don’t have the time or expertise to keep up with the proliferation of privileges, roles, resources and services across multiple cloud platforms.

ML and AI has transformed identity management

Identity lies in the core of security. Traditional identity mechanisms don’t apply to modern and often hybrid workloads. Runtime authorization decisions are now made within, applications. One integrated platform instead of several discrete Identity and Access Management solutions consumed in a SaaS-delivered manner is the answer. In addition, an ML/AI-driven approach that automates the identity management processes can improve operational efficiencies. AI and ML technologies continuously monitor access relationships and patterns for every cloud resource and aligns with zero trust network access (ZTNA) model for the enterprise.

Peer-to-peer fintech partnering with global businesses to offer bitcoin as payment option

Paxful, the leading global peer-to-peer fintech, today announced Paxful Pay, an e-commerce solution that allows businesses worldwide to receive bitcoin. The service is available today and allows customers to pay with almost 400 payment methods – exchanging into bitcoin that is sent to the merchant’s digital wallet. Businesses can register now to add Paxful Pay as a purchase option to their online checkout process.

Through Paxful Pay, businesses have the ability to manage their earnings and convert bitcoin into their local currency on the Paxful Marketplace using almost 400 payment methods. Merchants will also have control over the configuration of the solution on their Paxful Merchant Dashboard and can track every transaction. The company expects to expand to other digital currencies and also plans to introduce automatic conversion into stablecoins such as Tether (USDT). Further down the line, Paxful Pay will allow merchants to automatically convert bitcoin into their local currency within their bank account.

Consumers can expect the typical e-commerce flow — but will now have the option of selecting Paxful Pay as a payment method. This will prompt users to create a new profile or login as an existing Paxful user. Users can then use almost 400 payment methods to complete their purchase. With their Paxful login, users can also take advantage of Paxful’s other products such as Paxful Marketplace and Paxful Wallet.

Ray Youssef, CEO and co-founder of Paxful, said: “In many regions across the globe, we see people use bitcoin as a financial tool for purchasing goods and services. Bitcoin has several different use cases that we’ve only begun to leverage and e-commerce is a great example. At Paxful, it’s imperative that we give users and businesses around the world the opportunity to take advantage of the power of bitcoin to gain financial freedom.”

Artur Schaback, COO and co-founder of Paxful, said: “We’re thrilled to bring Paxful Pay to our global community. There is a clear need to offer local options for bitcoin and this product is a culmination of our efforts to deliver on that demand. By offering users the ability to complete purchases using almost 400 payment methods, they will now have an even stronger financial solution at their fingertips. We cannot wait to expand this offering to encompass as many merchants as possible.”

Currently, Paxful has over a hundred merchants on Paxful Pay. As the company ramps up the service, it expects to onboard a select number of new merchants in the coming weeks. From there, Paxful Pay will expand more generally.

Founded in 2015 and completely bootstrapped since then, Paxful is headquartered in New York with offices in Estonia, the Philippines and Russia. The team has doubled in size over the last 12 months, growing to over 400 people.

SonicWall today announced three new high-performance firewall models for enterprises and large organizations — NSa 4700, NSa 6700 and NSsp 13700 — designed to accelerate network throughput, stop advanced cyberattacks like ransomware, and securely connect millions of users. Featuring some of the highest port densities in their class, the new appliances help enterprises keep pace with the speeds of their growing networks — all while drastically reducing total cost of ownership (TCO).

“The growing volume of ransomware attacks has enterprises and government agencies moving quickly to evaluate their mitigation capabilities and strengthen their security postures,” said SonicWall President and CEO Bill Conner. “The recent string of highly publicized cyberattacks has catapulted security to the top of the priority list. We’re there to help by delivering multiple options to cost-effectively protect even the largest environments. With higher port densities and more capacity, the new offerings dramatically disrupt the traditional cost structure as organizations need fewer appliances to secure the same environment.”

New NSa Firewalls Disrupt Cost Expectations by Tripling Throughput, Expanding Port Densities

The new SonicWall NSa 4700 and NSa 6700 next-generation firewalls deliver 18 and 36 Gbps of firewall throughput — three times the previous comparable SonicWall appliances. Both also support critical TLS 1.3 encryption standards.

The NSa models boast some of the highest port densities in their class; the NSa 6700 even offers both 40G and 25G connectivity, delivering multi-gigabit threat protection for large environments. These higher port densities, coupled with hardware redundancy and high availability, allow distributed enterprises to purchase fewer appliances while supporting more secure connections as their networks grow.

The NSa 4700 and NSa 6700 provide up to 115,000 and 153,000 connections, respectively, per second. They also support up to 2 million or 6 million concurrent DPI connections, and up to 4,000 or 6,000 site-to-site VPN tunnels.

High-Performance NSsp 13700 Firewalls Designed To Protect The Fastest, Most Complex Environments
The new SonicWall NSsp 13700 is an advanced next-generation firewall for high-speed threat protection designed for enterprise-class networks and MSSPs that supports millions of encrypted connections.

The NSsp 13700 next-generation firewall delivers elite speeds for threat prevention throughput (45.5 Gbps), IPS (48 Gbps) and IPsec (29 Gbps), and include scalable hardware architecture with high port density. Like SonicWall’s other new offerings, the NSsp 13700 supports the latest TLS 1.3 encryption standard.

New Capture Labs Portal Delivers Research Tools, Centralized Repository
Information-sharing and collaboration is a critical component of an organization’s defensive posture. SonicWall is consolidating access to threat research and security news through the Capture Labs Portal, a free and centralized repository of research tools available to the public where visitors can track malicious actors and remain up to date with latest zero-day vulnerabilities.

To help expedite remediation, the Capture Labs Portal offers a single repository to look up threat signature, CVE details, IP reputation, and URL reputation, making it effortless to do your threat research from a single interface. SonicWall PSIRT advisories and Capture Labs threat researcher blogs with news regarding the latest vulnerabilities can be easily and quickly found      out to take actions in response to emerging threats, attack vectors or vulnerabilities.

Simplify Secure SD-WAN Deployment, Management with New Orchestration and Monitoring Capabilities
Enterprises, service providers, government agencies and MSSPs can efficiently manage large-scale deployments with SonicWall’s cloud-native Network Security Manager (NSM), which delivers a single, easy-to-use cloud interface for streamlined management, analytics and reporting.

With NSM 2.3, network infrastructure teams can quickly troubleshoot and resolve issues as they monitor secure SD-WAN landscapes in real time. Administrators can monitor the health and performance of complete SD-WAN environments to ensure consistent configurations and drive optimal application performance.

SD-WAN environments are now easily organized using SonicWall’s new and intuitive self-guided workflow as well as the use of Templates that allow the provisioning of thousands of remote firewalls efficiently.

Enterprises also can leverage the NSM wizard-based setup process to ensure proper configuration for site-to-site VPN connectivity, and use the monitoring tools to track the connections and ensure optimum performance.

Optimize Productivity with Enhanced Network Visibility, Monitoring and Reporting
Managing employees’ internet utilization and behavior can be a substantial challenge for organizations. SonicWall has enhanced network visibility and reporting capabilities across security devices, users, VPN connections and more.

SonicWall Analytics 3.1 delivers Productivity Reports to provide insights into employees’ internet utilization and behavior. Generated snapshots and drill-down reports can classify users’ web activities into productivity groups such as productive, unproductive, acceptable, unacceptable or custom-defined groups.

Drill-down capabilities enable analysts to easily and quickly pivot and investigate data points of interest at the user level, and establish evidence-backed, policy-controlled measures for risky users and applications as they unfold in the discovery process.

New VPN Reports allow organizations to summarize what company resources are being accessed inside VPN tunnels, how much bandwidth they are consuming and by whom. Network admins can leverage this information for monitoring business-critical applications, controlling or shaping traffic, and planning for capacity growth.

Zero-Trust Security Offering Expanded to Include More Granular Control

SonicWall also introduced Device Posture Check with SonicWall Cloud Edge Secure Access 1.1, and the addition of new Network Traffic Control that enforces access control to the resources based on user groups, IP addresses, ports and network protocols.