SonicWall buys boost security, storage

By Tim Greene, Network World
November 28, 2005 12:06 AM ET

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SonicWall is buying two companies to accelerate its security and storage options for customers.

The company is paying a total of $20 million for enKoo, which makes SSL VPN equipment for small and midsize businesses (SMB), and Lasso Logic, which makes appliances that back up data locally and provides a service to back up data at its secure storage facility.

After the deals go through, Sonic Wall will stop selling enKoo gear and start integrating enKoo features into the SonicWall SSL-VPN 200 and SSL-VPN 2000, says Matthew Medeiros, the company's president and CEO. The integration should be done by the end of the first quarter of next year, and the company will continue to support enKoo gear. The company says it also will offer customers deals to switch over to SonicWall equipment.

Network hardware companies continue to snap up technology they can use to make security a standard feature in the switches and routers that comprise the basic network plumbing inside businesses. Juniper Networks recently grabbed up security vendor Funk Software for $122 million. Citrix Systems then bought its way into the application firewall market by acquiring start-up Teros, and Force10 Networks acquired stealthy intrusion-prevention, intrusion-detection system (IPS/IDS) vendor MetaNetworks. In the past year Cisco acquired six security vendors, 3Com acquired IDS/IPS stalwart TippingPoint Technologies, Juniper bought application security firm Peribit and Citrix bought SSL VPN vendor Net6. (See more details to these acquisitions click here .)

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SonicWall is eating up one of its competitors' SMB customers, but faces competition from AEP and Watchguard Technologies. SonicWall started selling SSL VPN equipment two months ago with the introduction of two appliances and sees the need to speed up its development, Medeiros says. Enkoo can supply support for Citrix, single sign-on for remote users and the ability to rewrite HTTP, one key way that SSL VPN gear links remote users to corporate servers. "It was the type of product features we really needed to have," Medeiros says.

SonicWall is known for its firewall/VPN appliances for SMBs, although it has boosted the speed of the gear over the years to include equipment for larger customers. SonicWall also makes security platforms that scan for viruses, spyware, spam, phishing and other intrusions.

Its generally good reputation may ease worries of enKoo customers.

"I know they have good stuff," says Pete Kever, senior communications specialist for Griffith Holdings, an Internet marketing firm in Medina, Ohio.

Becoming part of a larger organization will likely help enKoo because it will have more resources to develop the products. SonicWall is taking on just six engineers from enKoo who have worked on SSL VPN software for years and have a jump on the SonicWall development team, the company says.

As for the Lasso purchase, SonicWall says it plans to continue selling Lasso's continuous data-protection appliances as stand-alone products, but will integrate management of the gear into SonicWall's management software. The idea is to give customers a single view of their security and back-up status and to set policies for both from the same console, Medeiros says. The gear is intended to provide backup in case other systems crash. It also will create a record of changes that can be used to comply with such regulations as the Sarbanes-Oxley Act and the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act.