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SonicWALL E-Class NSA E5500
(Credit: SonicWALL)
It's disappointing to think this product will sit locked away in a rack hidden in an enterprise's datacentre; the E-Class product family is actually attractive. Sadly, the only people likely to bask in its beauty are engineers performing routine maintenance.
SonicWALL's heritage in information security systems delivers beauty with the brains to match. The device is housed in a silver 1RU chassis, which features a milled and brushed aluminium panel up front with eight network ports, one high availability port, a console port and two USB ports.
Also up front is a small LCD display, a reset switch and four status LEDs indicating, power, test, alarm and hard disk activity. Down each side are ventilation grilles, while at the rear is the power supply (using an IEC power cable), an expansion bay and two hot swappable fans.
SonicWALL's value proposition for the E5500 is reassembly free deep packet inspection. This (theoretically) translates to enabling unlimited file sizes and unlimited file concurrency, without any significant compromise in performance. SonicWALL uses multi-core technology, which maintains this performance. It also incorporates dynamic threat protection, which automatically updates, and learns and protects against new threats without administrator intervention.
Installation of the E5500 unit is straightforward, with local configuration done via a web browser. The GUI provides access for administrators to manage whatever features they require. Despite the complexity of this system the interface is easy to use and navigate.
The E5500 is the low-end unit of the E-Series. The E Series is, however, SonicWALL's flagship range and, even though the E5500 is an entry-level product, it is certainly no slouch.
SonicWALL is a vendor who may get lost in the crowd — unless you do your research. The information security industry is notorious for those happy to go out and spread fear, uncertainty and doubt around without taking into consideration what end users actually need. Setting SonicWALL apart is the fact that a security engineer can integrate a range of SonicWALL products into a cohesive solution — enabling SonicWALL customers to design, pick and mix solutions that fit their environment — without overkill. This enables an organisation to tailor its security solution to match their requirements and, most importantly, manage it all from a centralised console.
The administrative interface of the SonicWALL E5500 (Credit: SonicWALL)
With SonicWALL, it is not necessarily one single product that sets it apart but the sum of all its products.
A good example of SonicWALL's product range comes when considering price. Enterprise devices range from the NSA240 at AU$1899 through to the E7500 at AU$28,995. The E5500 as tested for this review came in at AU$10,495, which is very reasonable considering its application.
A 12-month hardware warranty and 90 days support is offered as standard. Support is packaged in its "Total Secure" option that includes hardware, all security services and support for one, two or three years. E-Class support includes dedicated level 3 support.
| The bottom line | The benefit of SonicWALL's sum of parts equation is alive and strong with the E-Class product. SonicWALL is one to consider if your information security environment does not conform to a standard, and at the end of the day, whose does? |
|---|---|
| Vendor | SonicWALL |
| Price | AU$10,495 |
| Warranty & support | NSA and NSA E-Class product lines: 90 days support (web/phone, firmware updates), 12 months hardware warranty as standard. |
| NSA E-Class support includes dedicated level 3 support. | |
| One-, two- and three-year support options available. | |
| Support is also included when purchasing a "Total Secure" package, which includes the hardware, all security services and support for one, two or three years. | |
| The good | Product heritage |
| Feature rich | |
| Links easily with SonicWALL security product family | |
| The bad | Limited expansion |
| Two network ports only configurable for WAN failover/availability |
I'm amazed that you didn't bother to test the platform with the most impressive security track record known to man - OpenBSD.
It's easy to configure. There are no licensing costs. The rule set for PF is human readable. It supports IPv6.