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Network Security Appliance Series Overview:

Industry-validated security effectiveness and performance for mid-sized networks

The SonicWall Network Security Appliance (NSA) series provides midsized networks, branch offices and distributed enterprises with advanced threat prevention in a high-performance security platform. Combining nextgeneration firewall technology with our patented* Reassembly-Free Deep Packet Inspection (RFDPI) engine on a multi-core architecture, the NSA series offers the security, performance and control organizations require.

Benefits:

Superior threat prevention and performance

NSA series next-generation firewalls (NGFWs) integrate a series of advanced security technologies to deliver a superior level of threat prevention. Our patented single-pass RFDPI threat prevention engine examines every byte of every packet, inspecting both inbound and outbound traffic simultaneously. The NSA series leverages on-box capabilities including intrusion prevention, anti-malware and web/URL filtering in addition to cloud-based services such as CloudAV and SonicWall Capture multi-engine sandboxing to block zero-day threats at the gateway. Unlike other security products that cannot inspect large files for hidden threats, NSA firewalls scan files of any size across all ports and protocols. The security architecture in SonicWall NGFWs has been validated as one of the industry’s best for security effectiveness by NSS Labs which awarded SonicWall its “Recommended” rating for the fourth consecutive year.

Going beyond intrusion prevention, anti-malware and web filtering, SonicWall NGFWs provide a further level of protection by performing full decryption and inspection of TLS/SSL and SSH encrypted traffic as well as non-proxyable applications, enabling complete protection regardless of transport or protocol. It looks deep inside every packets (the header and data part) searching for protocol non-compliance, threats, zero-days, intrusions, and even defined criteria to detect and prevent hidden attacks that leverage cryptography, block encrypted malware downloads, cease the spread of infections, and thwart command and control (C&C) communications and data exfiltration. Inclusion and exclusion rules allow total control to customize which traffic is subjected to decryption and inspection based on specific organizational compliance and/ or legal requirements.

When organizations activate deep packet inspection functions such as intrusion prevention, anti-virus, anti spyware, TLS/SSL decryption/inspection and others on their firewalls network performance often slows down, sometimes dramatically. NSA series firewalls feature a multi-core hardware architecture that utilizes specialized security microprocessors. Combined with our RFDPI engine, this unique design eliminates the performance degradation networks experience with other firewalls.

In today’s security environment, it’s not enough to rely on solely on outside parties for threat information. That’s why SonicWall formed its own in-house threat research team more than 15 years ago. This dedicated team gathers, analyzes and vets data from over one million sensors in its GRID network. SonicWall also participates in industry collaboration efforts and engages with threat research communities to gather and share samples of attacks and vulnerabilities. This shared threat intelligence is used to develop real-time countermeasures that are automatically deployed to our customers’ firewalls.

Network control and flexibility

At the core of the NSA series is SonicOS, SonicWall’s feature-rich operating system. SonicOS provides organizations with the network control and flexibility they require through application intelligence and control, real-time visualization, an intrusion prevention system (IPS) featuring sophisticated antievasion technology, high-speed virtual private networking (VPN) and other robust security features.

Using application intelligence and control, network administrators can identify and categorize productive applications from those that are unproductive or potentially dangerous, and control that traffic through powerful application-level policies on both a peruser and a per-group basis (along with schedules and exception lists). Businesscritical applications can be prioritized and allocated more bandwidth while non-essential applications are bandwidth-limited. Real-time monitoring and visualization provides a graphical representation of applications, users and bandwidth usage for granular insight into traffic across the network.

For organizations that require advanced flexibility in their network design, SonicOS offers the tools to securely segment the network through the use of virtual LANs (VLANs) which enable network administrators to create a virtual LAN interface that allows for network separation into one or more logical groups. Administrators create rules that determine the level of communication with devices on other VLANs.

Built into every NSA series firewall is a wireless access controller that enables organizations to extend the network perimeter securely through the use of wireless technology. Together, SonicWall firewalls and SonicPoint 802.11ac wireless access points create a wireless network security solution that combines industry-leading next-generation firewall technology with high-speed wireless for enterprise-class network security and performance across the wireless network.

Easy deployment, setup and ongoing management

Like all SonicWall firewalls, the NSA series tightly integrates key security, connectivity and flexibility technologies into a single, comprehensive solution. This includes SonicPoint wireless access points and the SonicWall WAN Acceleration Appliance (WXA) series, both of which are automatically detected and provisioned by the managing NSA firewall. Consolidating multiple capabilities eliminates the need to purchase and install point products that don’t always work well together. This reduces the effort it takes to deploy the solution into the network and configure it, saving both time and money.

Ongoing management and monitoring of network security are handled centrally through the firewall or through the SonicWall Global Management System (GMS), providing network administrators with a single pane of glass from which to manage all aspects of the network. Together, the simplified deployment and setup along with the ease of management enable organizations to lower their total cost of ownership and realize a high return on investment.

Network Security Appliance Features:

• Best in-class protection
• Multi-core architecture
• Ultra high performance
• Intrusion prevention
• Network-based anti-malware
• Secure remote access
• Secure wireless
• URL filtering
• Gateway anti-spam
• Application control
• Centralized management

The SonicWall NSA Series next-generation firewalls (NGFWs) utilize the latest multi-core hardware design and Reassembly-Free Deep Packet Inspection to protect the network from internal and external attacks without compromising performance. The NSA Series combines intrusion prevention, content and URL inspection, application intelligence and control, high availability and other advanced networking features.

• The SonicWall NSA 6600 is ideal for large distributed and corporate central site environments requiring high throughput capacity and performance.
• The SonicWall NSA 5600 is ideal for distributed, branch office and corporate environments needing significant throughput.
• The SonicWall NSA 3600/4600 is ideal for branch office and small- to medium-sized corporate environments concerned about throughput capacity and performance.
• The SonicWall NSA 2650 delivers high-speed threat prevention over thousands of encrypted and even more unencrypted connections to mid-sized organizations and distributed enterprises.
• The SonicWall NSA 2600 is designed to address the needs of growing small organizations, branch offices and school campuses.

*U.S. Patents 7,310,815; 7,600,257; 7,738,380; 7,835,361; 7,991,723