Thank you for the well wishes in 2009; it has started well. In respect to new players in the Unified Threat Management (UTM) space trying to compete with SonicWALL; existing SonicWALL partners that have embraced the MSP model have an existing, profitable investment that would be difficult to displace without consideration to the existing trained knowledge and expertise on the product line.

A forklift upgrade to a new platform or vendor, while possible, is not desirable for any business or MSP. However, when a vendor develops a way to provide an affordable, pay as you go model with an extensive and robust cerntralized management platform; there will be wider adoption that the monolithic model enforced by all UTM vendors today.

We want to see SonicWALL do this as it is a logical extension of an existing relationship, would increase our ‘attach rates’ for add-on services and would have a positive effect on cash-flow for both SonicWALL and the partner base. But I digress into financial topics when I say that…

One thing I have noticed is an attempt by the open source world (particularly Untangle) to disrupt SonicWALL’s MSP market efforts.

I’m wondering if MSPs will investigate SonicWALL’s certification (as newly designed) or start looking at Untangle, etc., as potential alternatives.

I will let you know if I hear anything from SonicWALL regarding our coverage plus our feedback. Please do the same, and best wishes for a great 2009.

While this announcement from SonicWall is a step in the right direction, it fails to miss the mark for the MSP community as a whole. The cost of entry to the program is steep with two Certified SonicWALL Systems Administrators (CSSA) and an annual revenue minimum of $300K (MSRP) to SonicWALL.

There are only a small handful of SonicWALL partners that this specialization applies. SonicWALL still has not extended a pay for play program for services to their hardware devices. Currently, if you offer a SonicWALL-based managed service you must purchase all of the licensing on Day 1 of the contract, absorbing the cost with the hopes of making money in 5-6 months from the signing of the contract.

If they want greater adoption of their products and services, they will leverage the Global Management System (GMS) platform to capture licenses in use and create a billing portal that is integrated.

As a SonicWALL Partner for more than five years; this kind of innovation would dramatically increase acceptance and adoption of their add-on services and increase their revenues. However, that message has never been heard loud enough by their management team.