SonicWall NSv (Firewall/Security/VPN/Router) - PAYG

Positive

My main use case for SonicWall NSv  is to secure connectivity between the virtual machines in ESXi and the cloud internet.

SonicWall NSv  works for me day-to-day by allowing me to configure DPI that checks packets for malware, exploits, and some ransomware. I have also deployed the Application Control  that works on Zoom and Microsoft Teams , which allows limits connectivity to these applications. Additionally, I have deployed cloud-native security that protects the VM containers and workloads, and I have connected a site-to-site VPN, enabling us to connect site users into the virtual machines through the site-to-site VPN.

Regarding my main use case for SonicWall NSv, initially we deployed the physical devices, SonicWall 200 firewalls, and in the physical environment, we were unable to move from cloud to protect this virtual machine. At the end of the day, SonicWall NSv helps us to validate this connectivity between the virtual machines compared to the physical hardware we were using before.

The best features SonicWall NSv offers include DPI, which inspects every traffic that comes into the virtual machines, and that is one of the most important features for me. Additionally, it has Advanced Threat Protection, flexibility in applying policies, and VPN and SSL VPN  connectivity, which are the major features that I think are very good.

Advanced Threat Protection has made a difference for my environment by providing real-time, memory-deep inspection and a machine learning feature that is able to learn the way these devices behave and analyze them. The cloud delivery threat intelligence spots suspicious behavior in just a few seconds, stopping it before execution, automatically blocking and quarantining files. These features are very important, as well as the machine learning features that evaluate file system changes, help in changing the registry, and prevent network course process behavior. These key advantages are what I have observed in the few years of deployment.

I think the machine learning feature is very important because next-generation firewalls need that feature to help us review the latest trend of attacks, which are becoming more prevalent and smarter. Without the implementation of machine learning, preventing these threats on the network becomes very difficult, so I truly appreciate this feature.

SonicWall NSv has impacted my organization positively as I see a lot of threats being detected and blocked when I review the logs. The infusion of many signatures for the DPI helps me to review all the logs and identify the forms of attacks I am facing on a daily basis, such as more than 500 different brute force attacks trying to guess my admin password to breach the firewall. These logs really assist me in understanding the threats to specific factions of my organization and applying the relevant security policies to secure the entire network.

I believe SonicWall NSv is performing well overall, but I think it would be beneficial to have physical versions, such as the hardware of SonicWall NSv, for some environments that may not necessarily need to be connected to the cloud. I also think that there could be free tutorials or courses for engineers to learn more about these new firewall deployments and their use cases. If there are resources, sharing them online would be helpful to master the full capacities of the product.

The few points off I take relate to the understanding that there should always be improvement in every production environment. I believe there may be significant improvements that the application itself needs that I have not recognized or shared, and I trust that your team has the ability to enhance this further to compete better in the market.

I have been working in my current field for the past 14 years.

SonicWall NSv is stable so far.

SonicWall NSv's scalability is manageable; my environment does not have too many virtual machines, with fewer than 50, and not all powered on at the same time. We are able to upgrade devices and RAM without issues when it comes to how SonicWall NSv performs.

Customer support for SonicWall NSv is top-notch, and I have had positive experiences with their support team. I would rate the customer support a nine out of ten.

Positive

My experience with pricing, setup costs, and licensing has been smooth; the support has been on point. Since I started using SonicWall NSv, their support has always been number one, making it easy to route calls to the right agents who support us without delay.

I previously used FortiGate, but I did not switch completely; some sections and departments are still on FortiGate while my virtual environment runs on SonicWall NSv.

We have considered several alternatives like FortiGate and Meraki, but I chose SonicWall NSv for the very good user experience, especially with customer support.

We evaluated other options including FortiGate, but what won us over was the sales representative and my past experiences. After assessing their latest features, especially the machine learning that makes work easier, we decided to go for SonicWall NSv instead of FortiGate.

I have not performed any specific evaluations on metrics, but I can say that SonicWall NSv makes my work easier compared to other firewalls on my network like FortiGate. Once the configuration is done, I can confidently expect it to work, rather than having to log into the firewall every time to update virus signatures manually. With automatic updates, it saves me work time, but I cannot provide specific numbers for that.

SonicWall NSv is deployed in my organization as a hybrid setup, with some on-premises components and a bit attached to our cloud environment.

My advice for others looking into using SonicWall NSv is that it is very good and designed to make the engineer's work much easier. You need 24/7 support and a solution that provides peace of mind regarding network protection and system security. I would recommend SonicWall NSv, especially since it supports all cloud deployments and easy scaling, even for on-premises setups. It is good for bandwidth and throughput for all hardware devices, and integrating into the cloud is straightforward. There are also flexible payment options, such as pay-as-you-go, which makes SonicWall NSv a great choice for engineers. I would give this product an overall rating of 7 out of 10.

SonicWall NSv  is primarily used in cloud environments like Azure  and AWS  for partner connectivity. A specific example of how I use SonicWall NSv  for partner connectivity in Azure  or AWS  involves working with a customer who has an Azure tenant with a Zscaler app connector installed. The customer wants to connect to their partner, so we build a site-to-site VPN to the partner from Azure SonicWall NSv and then build a tunnel. This is the main use case, and we definitely add some security rules as well.

SonicWall NSv offers several best features, including security profiles such as IPS protection and malware protection, as well as ease of use. The ease of use with SonicWall NSv is primarily due to the GUI look and feel, which is very user-friendly. This stands out because I work on many firewall products.

SonicWall NSv is more stable and less of a headache compared to Palo Alto because we did not have any issues. I can compare it to other vendors, and when we made some upgrades with another vendor, the policy that was applied was not really there. With another firewall vendor, the logs were not really showing. I did not face these kinds of issues with SonicWall NSv.

There is a feature called Real-Time Deep Memory Inspection in SonicWall NSv, which is basically ATP sandboxing by detecting and blocking zero-day threats. This is a good feature. I would say it is not a unique feature, but one of the best features that is available.

Regarding needed improvements for SonicWall NSv, if not in terms of features, then in terms of support, I think from the L1 level, if there were better skilled resources available right from L1, it would make the service better.

I have been using SonicWall NSv for two to three years.

SonicWall NSv was selected by our customer and was already in place, so I would not say that it has affected anything positively. However, I would say that SonicWall NSv has been stable and we did not have any headache or any bad experience with SonicWall NSv compared to other products, such as Palo Alto, because we had a tough time handling Palo Alto. SonicWall NSv is really stable.

I believe SonicWall NSv's scalability is good. On a scale of 10, I would rate it 7 or 8.

I would rate customer support for SonicWall NSv as 7 or 8 on a scale of 1 to 10.

Positive

SonicWall NSv was not purchased through the AWS marketplace because it was purchased by our customer, and we are managing it. I believe it was purchased through the marketplace itself. I did not look for a different solution for this purpose, but I have worked on Palo Alto, Cisco Firepower, and others. SonicWall NSv was provided by the customer, so I did not have any option to choose.

I do not have any metrics available regarding return on investment. I would say it was a stable infrastructure.

I do not get involved in the pricing, setup cost, and licensing for SonicWall NSv, as it was handled by the customer directly. In a general discussion, what I understand is that SonicWall NSv was a bit expensive for the subscription.

I would rate SonicWall NSv as an 8 out of 10. I chose an eight out of 10 for SonicWall NSv because there are some improvements to be done in the support, and I think the subscription is slightly expensive. These are the reasons why I gave 8 and why I did not give 10. My advice to others looking into using SonicWall NSv is that if you really need a stable solution, SonicWall NSv is better, but you should look at the cost. I do not recall other improvements SonicWall NSv needs at this time. My overall review rating for SonicWall NSv is 8.

Neutral