SonicWall stands on its own two feet as new 'spinoff' from Dell acquisition
Cybersecurity provider SonicWall is about to become its own independent company, following the restructure of Dell Software Group.
Francisco Partners and Elliott Management completed the Dell acquisition this week and will now 'spin out' SonicWall as its own company, focused on maintaining its 'excellent reputation' in the security industry. Dell EMC will continue to sell the entire SonicWall portfolio.
"SonicWall is a trusted partner to its customers and channel partners in 40 countries worldwide and is laser focused on innovating next-generation network security. This acquisition will better enable SonicWall to continue its journey in delivering world-class solutions and help defend against the explosive growth of new cybersecurity threats," explains Dipanjan "DJ" Deb, Francisco Partners' co-founder and CEO.
SonicWall will also bring on board Bill Conner as president and CEO. Conner comes from an extensive cybersecurity and networking background, after working at companies such as Silent Circle, Entrust and Nortel Networks.
"We are in the midst of a cybersecurity arms race. As a standalone SonicWall brand, we can act even more deftly and quickly to serve channel partners and customers by offering products and services second to none," Conner says.
SonicWall will be building on its channel partner commitment and continuing its SecureFirst Partner Program. The company says it will introduce improved partner rewards, deal protection and technical enablement of the SonicWall portfolio.
SonicWall ANZ country manager Sandeep Joshi believes the company's independence will allow for new markets, channel partnerships and customers to come on board across Australia and New Zealand.
"Becoming an independent company is going to enable us to focus on new markets and strengthen channel partnerships in ANZ to help us serve businesses of all sizes with specific strengths in large distributed environments, campus education, retail, financial, healthcare and government institutions," Joshi says.
"SonicWALL and Dell have had a strong history over the last few years with leading positions in the security space and I have no doubt that we will maintain synergies going forward," Joshi continues.
John Papoutsis, technical services director of Hitech Support, is one of SonicWall's Australian channel partners. He has also commended the announcement.
"We have an ongoing strong 12-year relationship with SonicWall and as a direct result have built a successful Managed Services Provider business. We are excited to be a part of the new era. We have pushed the boundaries of what the SonicWall solutions can do and have successfully deployed their solutions into large and complicated environments. The biggest problem that we face is when we have to explain to customers that we can deliver such solutions with such high performance and functionality at such a cost effective price," he says.
