1. SonicWALL Business Insight
CLO U D CO M PU T I N G /SA A S Enabling Cloud Computing and SaaS with Enterprise Security Solutions
The Cloud Computing/SaaS Scenario n Security – With cloud computing, application code and
Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) has steadily gained traction over sensitive data are moved outside of the corporate boundary,
the years, finding a useful, though relatively limited, role within and no longer receive the benefit of perimeter and data
the vast majority of enterprises. These days, however, it is cloud center defenses that IT has implemented. A major implication
computing—a new delivery and consumption model for IT of this migration is that it is not just your customers, but
services based on Internet technologies and characterized by mobile and distributed employees too, that now have direct
dynamic provisioning and scaling of virtualized resources—that access to these resources. The only obstacle is whatever
is sparking renewed interest in service-provider-based offer- security mechanisms the cloud provider decides to put in
ings, be they SaaS, Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS), or place, which in many cases means little more than placing
Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS). Indeed, a survey by Gartner1 restrictions on the source IP range for inbound sessions, so
revealed that cloud computing rates as the second highest that only the customer’s users can gain access.
technology priority in 2010, behind only virtualization.
n Compliance – Equally troubling is the impact that migrating
This finding is not at all surprising, given the many benefits data and applications to the cloud has on an organization’s
cloud computing has to offer. For starters, with cloud computing, ability to achieve compliance with regional and industry-
ordinary businesses essentially obtain the ability to have highly specific privacy and security regulations. The loss of visibility
scalable and responsive Web applications and services—just and control over user activities makes it significantly more
like those from Amazon, Google, and others—without having challenging to legitimately make the requisite assertions
to first discover and master the tricks of the trade and then build regarding data integrity and the potential for inappropriate
all of the underlying infrastructure themselves. or unauthorized disclosure of sensitive information.
Because cloud computing entails the purchase of a service n Performance – Application performance can also become
rather direct ownership of all the necessary bits and pieces, IT an issue in certain cases. This is particularly true for latency
organizations also enjoy quicker startup times, better agility and/or bandwidth sensitive applications where users
and investment protection (based on being able to terminate formerly had access to local instances of them.
the relationship and change directions as needed), and need
SonicWALL for Cloud Computing/SaaS
only pay for what is used. In addition, the fact that these
Maximizing the benefits of SaaS and cloud computing delivery
services are delivered from a much larger, shared and highly
models depends on having the ability to address the afore-
optimized computing environment, means that customers
mentioned challenges. In this regard, enterprise security
obtain better economies of scale, do not incur the cost of
solutions from SonicWALL® provide today’s organizations with
having to design for peak loads, and can obtain advanced
exactly what they need.
features and capabilities at more affordable rates.
As promising as SaaS and, to a greater extent, cloud SonicWALL Clean VPN – A combination of SonicWALL Secure
computing are, though, IT managers need to keep in mind Remote Access and SonicWALL Network Security solutions,
that these alternative approaches to delivering IT services Clean VPN is an innovative and highly effective approach to
are accompanied by a number of significant challenges, counteracting the security and compliance challenges presented
including ones pertaining to security, regulatory compliance, by SaaS and cloud computing. First of all, SonicWALL SSL VPN
and performance. appliances provide a full suite of enterprise-class access control
1
Press Release, “Gartner EXP Worldwide Survey …”, January 19, 2010
PROTECTION AT THE SPEED OF BUSINESS™

2. SonicWALL® Business Insight
capabilities. Users are authenticated, their devices are inspected SonicWALL Application Intelligence – An embedded component
for conformance with corporate policies and requirements for of SonicWALL Network Security Appliances, Application Intelligence
resident security software, and granular control is enforced and Control helps IT departments address the challenges of cloud
over which applications and resources can be accessed in any computing in two distinct ways. First, it provides detailed visibility
given scenario. and control of associated traffic based on the specific applications
and services being used and, optionally, based on who is using them
Simultaneously, SonicWALL Network Security Appliances are also and when they are being used. Access control and threat inspection
at work scrubbing both inbound and outbound cloud computing policies can thus be set and enforced on a highly granular basis,
traffic in a context- and content-aware manner. In this way, the instead of having to treat all cloud computing traffic the same.
solution’s deep packet inspection firewall and integrated gateway
anti-virus, anti-spyware, and intrusion prevention capabilities can The second way that Application Intelligence helps is by providing IT
provide accurate and effective protection from today’s dynamic with a means to mitigate potential performance issues. The ability to
security threats, including elusive malware, hackers, and other discern which specific applications comprise a given traffic stream,
ill-intentioned users. In addition, high-speed Reassembly-Free combined with built-in QoS and bandwidth enforcement capabilities,
Deep Packet Inspection and a multi-core architecture ensure a enables IT departments to reserve bandwidth for essential applications,
high-degree of scalability while delivering thorough, zero-impact and prioritize their treatment relative to less critical services. In
protection for latency-sensitive applications. addition, comprehensive reporting capabilities support ongoing
monitoring and tuning, thus ensuring that associated rules remain
In addition, SonicWALL Clean VPN supports multiple deployment aligned with actual conditions and shifting usage patterns.
options. The associated controls can be implemented either in the
cloud or, alternately, at the enterprise premise for those situations Bottom Line
where greater control is required and/or the service provider is Enterprise security solutions from SonicWALL help mitigate related
not amenable to the former arrangement. In either case, the result security, compliance, and performance challenges, enabling
is a comprehensive dose of threat protection, highly granular today’s enterprises to more fully achieve the cost of ownership,
access control, and restoration of the visibility and control scalability, and agility benefits associated with cloud computing
needed to confidently assert conformance with prevailing and SaaS approaches for IT service delivery.
compliance requirements.
SonicWALL’s line-up of dynamic security solutions
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©2010 SonicWALL and the SonicWALL logo is registered trademarks of SonicWALL, Inc. Protection at the Speed of Business is a trademark of SonicWALL, Inc. Other product names mentioned herein may be trademarks and/or registered trademarks of their
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