SonicWall NSA E5500

With cybersecurity a continuing priority, more and more network managers are turning to a new class of network security appliances to blunt attacks from viruses, spyware and vulnerability exploits. Often referred to as unified threat management (UTM), these appliances combine a firewall with powerful processors and a variety of software gateways to stop threats that launch from both outside and inside the network.

SonicWall offers the NSA E5500, an enterprise-class multipurpose security appliance that can sit at network junctions, acting as a firewall, network bridge and all-around guardian against malicious content and malware.

End-User Advantages

The E5500 is the entry point into SonicWall’s NSA E-series. A single E5500 can protect a network of a few hundred users, handling 15,000 network connections per second and providing in-depth defense as a gatekeeper to traffic going to and from the Internet.

The E5500 can also provide protection against internal threats, screening traffic passing between nodes of the network. And it protects down to the desktop as well with its antivirus and antispyware client software — the use of which can be enforced by the E5500, denying network connections to unprotected systems. The client anti-virus and antispyware software, Enforced McAfee, can be linked to any web, e-mail or File Transfer Protocol connection, intercepting infected or malicious files before they are downloaded.

As a gateway, the E5500 can do content filtering on all network traffic as it passes through. It supports application-level filtering, blocking or limiting bandwidth for various types of applications (such as YouTube videos or unauthorized file-sharing programs, for example). It also can monitor traffic to perform intrusion prevention and respond to denial of service and malware attacks.

Why It Works for IT

Although it’s an enterprise-class appliance, I found setup and management to be incredibly straightforward. Initial settings can be configured from the front panel of the appliance, but most of the software configuration can be managed centrally through a web interface. Called the SonicWall Global Management System, the web tool allows an administrator to manage multiple appliances across an enterprise and get real-time monitoring data.

It also provides high performance. Powered by an eight-core processor, the E5500 has all the oomph it needs to perform its content- and application-filtering tasks at 1 gigabyte per second or better. That means there’s little, if any, latency, and users likely won’t notice a difference in application performance.

The E5500 can be configured for automatic failover, and a high-availability port lets you to configure a second E5500 appliance as a backup, which will take over in the event of a system failure.

Disadvantages

Although the annual licensing model provides a set of well-integrated, well-supported defenses, it carries an annual recurring cost if you want to take full advantage of its capabilities.

Additionally, while the management tool is fairly straightforward to use, it’s not something to be put in the hands of an inexperienced technology staffer. Make sure that you adequately train the systems administrator who’s going to manage this piece of your security arsenal.