SonicWall is on a roll. In recent months, the cybersecurity leader has completed three acquisitions and extended its cybersecurity portfolio to include managed security services and cloud edge security solutions for Managed Service Providers and Managed Security Service Providers. After riding a wave of momentum, what is next for SonicWall?
We sat down with SonicWall President and Chief Executive Officer Robert “Bob” VanKirk to hear his insights on the industry, the trends shaping the future, and his priorities for the remainder of this year into next.
Q: Bob, congratulations on some exciting progress. What is driving all this momentum from SonicWall?
A: Thank you! First and foremost, credit goes to the entire SonicWall team. Our momentum is a direct result of taking an outside-in approach with our partners and customers: listening intently to their needs and pain points, and then acting on those insights. We have new leadership and key talent across the company, a refreshed product roadmap that we’re delivering against, and now the proof points are lining up as the team executes.
Two of our acquisitions, Solutions Granted Inc. and Banyan Security, were key to filling specific gaps in our solution set based on feedback from our partners, namely delivering more security as a co-managed service and delivering cloud-native security capabilities that they need to protect their customers’ evolving needs. We’ve used these two acquisitions to further transform SonicWall, our culture and our platform offering.
In terms of our channel direction, we have doubled down on listening to our partners. Moving forward, we are going to continue to have our partners help shape our roadmap as we focus on how we can enable them to provide value-added services and play a larger role as trusted security advisors to the businesses they protect. Our commitment to our channel partners will always be at the core of who SonicWall is, and that is clearly resonating and fueling our growth.
Q: What is your current outlook on the cybersecurity sector?
A: Cautious optimism – how’s that for an oxymoron? While attacks, threats, and numerous variants of the same remain steadily on the rise, we’re also witnessing customer and partner caution around upgrades or expansions. It’s true that cybersecurity is no longer viewed as an added expense to the bottom line, but a necessary mandate to protect a firm and its assets from financial ruin or severe reputational damage. That said, most companies and organizations are also dealing with concerns around the economy and being asked to do more with less, which can place them in a tough spot when it comes to doing what’s needed for cybersecurity. So, in a nutshell, the demand for cybersecurity won’t slow down, but how partners deliver it and how their customers consume it will. We expect to see a continued migration to the cloud, more demand for security as a service and a growing desire to shift from capex to opex in terms of security spend.
Q: What are some of the latest threats and current trends business should be aware of?
A: SonicWall just released our 2024 Mid-Year Cyber Threat Report, researched and compiled by SonicWall Capture Labs, and some of the findings are quite alarming including the following:
- Attacks continue to rise in volume and complexity
- In fact, while a typical business may be open eight hours a day, we’re finding that our average customer is experiencing mid to high level attacks via their firewalls for more than 10 to 12 hours a day.
- That means that they were protected for more than 46 days of downtime. Do the math with top line revenue and the savings there quickly adds up. We also know that many SMBs can easily be out of business as the result of a single attack.
- Malware trended up 30% YoY, including a massive 92% spike in May alone
- Ransomware continues to intensify in North America (+15%) and explode in LATAM (+51%)
- IoT attacks (+107%) and encrypted threats (+92%) continue to climb globally
- 83% of customer-received alerts seen by our managed services team are related to cloud apps and compromised credentials
- Alarmingly, SonicWall identified 78,923 ‘never-before-seen’ malware variants which equates to 526 a day
Q: What keeps Bob VanKirk up at night?
A: Unequivocally, bad actors and the sheer number and complexity of cyber-attacks. We are embroiled in a cyber arms race. Because bad actors—and their continually evolving mode of attacks and threats—never sleep, we need to remain vigilant and intent upon staying one step ahead. That said, we’re intentionally staying up all night, every night – offering 24x7x365 MSS/SOC protection—so our partners and customers can leverage SonicWall as an extension of their team and provide this key layer of security services.
Driving partner value means doing more though – we’re looking at our levels of support (reducing response times to seconds from hours and minutes), how we charge for and deliver our cyber solutions and services (offering more pay as you go and monthly billing), and offering partner programs and enablement designed to position our partners and their businesses for growth and success.
Q: After three acquisitions and the release of numerous industry-leading solutions and services, what is next for SonicWall?
A: SonicWall will maintain its outside-in approach with a focus on responding to our partners’ needs, which will include investing in both organic and inorganic efforts. As partners look to vendor consolidation and a platform approach to managing across multiple solutions, look for SonicWall to lean into its recently announced cloud management platform and to do more and be more integrated from the endpoint to the network, to the cloud.
What we do know emphatically is that threats and attacks are inevitable and how well prepared our partners and customers are able to deal with the same can mean significant savings or loss from a financial or brand reputation perspective. This is not a responsibility we take lightly. Our commitment is to empower our partners with a platform of modern solutions designed to help them grow their business along with enhancing the solutions and tools they need to sustain their current business momentum and success now and well into the future.
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