For far too long the modern organization has been told it must pay hundreds of thousands of dollars (or even millions) for powerful, enterprise-grade security. But for more than 25 years, SonicWall’s mission has been to deliver consistent value and powerful cyber security for organizations of all sizes and budgets. For the fifth time since 2012, this has been validated by one of the most trusted, fact-based organizations in the industry: NSS Labs. In its 2018 group test of next-generation firewalls (NGFW), NSS Labs strongly positioned SonicWall and the NSa 2650 firewall in the upper-right ‘Recommended’ quadrant of the 2018 NSS Labs Security Value MapTM (SVM). “NSS Labs is committed to independent testing that helps enterprises make informed cybersecurity decisions,” said NSS Labs CEO Vikram Phatak in SonicWall’s official announcement. “With ‘Recommended’ ratings for five years, SonicWall next-generation firewalls are an excellent choice for any company seeking devices with strong security and consistent product quality to evolve their security architectures. We applaud SonicWall’s focus on product consistency and security effectiveness.”
This year’s in-depth firewall comparison was comprised of totals based on security effectiveness, block rates, stability, performance, product purchasing price, maintenance, installation costs, required upkeep, management and installation. In its head-to-head comparison tests, NSS Labs verifies that NSa 2650:
- Remains one of the highest-rated and best-value NGFWs in the industry, with a 98.8 percent security effectiveness rating
- Delivers second-best total cost of ownership (TCO) with $4 per protected Mbps
- Tested 100 percent effective in countering all advanced HTTP evasion, obfuscation and fragmentation techniques
- Earned 100 percent ratings in stability and reliability testing
Many factors are taken into consideration when weighing vendor options, measuring security efficacy and calculating TCO.
Security Effectiveness of Firewalls
NSS Labs conducts one of the industry’s most respected, comprehensive and fact-based validation programs for a full range of cybersecurity products, including network and breach security, endpoint protection, cloud and virtual security, and more. For this year’s comparison test, the SonicWall NSa 2650 next-generation firewall was compared against other industry offerings. During the NSS Labs evaluation, SonicWall NSa 2650 endured thorough testing exercises via the NSS Exploit Library, which exposed the appliance to more than 1,900 exploits. To ensure real-world testing conditions, NSS Labs engineers utilize multiple commercial, open-source and propriety tools to launch a broad range of attacks. SonicWall NSa 2650 blocked 98.8 percent of all attacks was 100 percent reliable during testing. SonicWall also was successful in countering 100 percent of all advanced HTTP evasion, obfuscation and fragmentation techniques. The SonicWall NSa 2650 strong security effectiveness and findings within the NSS report are applicable to the entire SonicWall NSa next-generation firewall series.
Total Cost of Ownership for Firewalls
“SonicWall offers the second-lowest TCO with $4 cost per protected Mbps.”
The cyber security industry’s pricing models are, frankly, out of date. Too many legacy vendors believe their old way of doing business — charging hundreds of thousands, or even millions of dollars — is beneficial to end customers and prospects. In some cases, high-end hardware is required, but there should also be powerful, cost-effective options for today’s business. SonicWall understands and embraces this change. It’s the reason we continually monitor and refine our pricing structures to ensure every organization is able to protect themselves from today’s most malicious cyberattacks. And we’re proud to say that NSS Labs found SonicWall to offer the second-lowest TCO with $4 cost per protected Mbps.
NSS Labs calculates TCO across a three-year period. At a high level, the formula includes:
- Year 1 Purchase Price
- Year 1 Installation & Labor
- Year 1 Maintenance Costs
- Year 2 Maintenance Costs
- Year 3 Maintenance Costs
According to NSS Labs, “Calculations are based on a labor rate of $75 (USD) per hour and vendor-provided pricing information. Where possible, the 24/7 maintenance and support option with 24-hour replacement is used, since enterprise customers typically select that option. Pricing includes one enterprise-class CMS to manage up to five devices.” As a best practice, enterprises and security-conscious organizations should include TCO as part of their NGFW evaluations, including:
- Acquisition costs for NGFW and a central management system (CMS)
- Fees paid to the vendor for annual maintenance, support and signature updates
- Labor costs for installation, maintenance and upkeep
