SonicWall Develops a Shared Services Platform 6 Months Faster with SoftServe and AWS

SonicWall, a cybersecurity leader specializing in network security and content control solutions, began its journey to the cloud with a lift-and-shift approach. When it needed greater agility and to accelerate modernization, SonicWall selected AWS Partner SoftServe. Together, they created a centralized shared services platform using the SoftServe Application Modernization Platform (SAMP) and Amazon Web Services (AWS). The new SonicWall Shared Services Platform reduced service onboarding time by 70 percent, accelerated application modernization timelines by six months, and improved collaboration between development and operations teams.

SonicWall, a cybersecurity leader trusted worldwide for network protection, offers a diverse portfolio of products and services. Before it began its journey to the cloud, SonicWall operated within a complex IT environment built on on-premises infrastructure. The manual effort required to manage these systems interfered with efficiency, agility, and collaboration. As the company continued to expand its product line, the limitations of its on-premises environment became more apparent. SonicWall recognized that it needed to migrate its systems and applications to the cloud to keep up with internal growth.

Its lift-and-shift approach to migration involved moving entire applications and workloads to AWS infrastructure without rearchitecting them. While this helped speed up the transition, it created a mirror of the company’s on-premises setup. Without a unified portal or API to standardize management interfaces, infrastructure management remained inconsistent. Applications were placed into isolated cloud silos. Developers faced collaboration and process hurdles that interfered with innovation, and operations teams struggled with unpredictable costs and limited visibility across systems. SonicWall wanted to give its developers the tools to innovate faster while simplifying the management of a wide portfolio of applications across the organization.

Denis Branco, EVP of cloud engineering and operations at SonicWall, found the right fit for agility and modernization in a relatively new concept. “Platform engineering felt like the natural next step,” Branco said. “The idea of a shared services platform that could provide a consistent foundation for all of our applications—without reinventing the wheel for each project— was exactly what we needed to simplify operations and empower our developers.” SonicWall approached AWS with this vision, seeking guidance on how to bring it to life, so AWS introduced the company to AWS Partner SoftServe. SonicWall found that the SoftServe SAMP offering provided a proven framework for building and deploying platform engineering solutions that could meet their needs. “The beauty of SAMP,” said Branco, “is that it gave us a blueprint—a starting point that we could build on to meet our specific requirements. It wasn’t a cookie-cutter solution.”

SonicWall had unique requirements due to its mix of legacy, on-premises, and cloud infrastructure. Recognizing the scale of the challenge, SonicWall received funding from the AWS Modernization Acceleration Program to support SoftServe in developing a minimum viable product (MVP) for the shared services platform. This pilot served to validate assumptions, refine the platform design, and address key modernization requirements. The platform architecture, built using AWS best practices, featured Amazon Elastic Kubernetes Service (Amazon EKS) for container orchestration, Amazon Simple Storage Service (Amazon S3) for scalable storage, and AWS Lambda for serverless computing. Amazon Aurora simplified database management, and Amazon OpenSearch Service provided observability and monitoring. Plus, SAMP’s modular design and infrastructure-as-code approach provided the flexibility to expand or integrate additional tools.

Following the pilot's success, SonicWall moved to implementation, supported by the AWS Migration Acceleration Program (MAP). During the MAP assessment and mobilization phases, SonicWall worked closely with SoftServe to refine the SonicWall Shared Services Platform, migrate applications, and standardize operations. The result was the foundational piece for SonicWall to migrate, modernize, and deploy at scale.

By partnering with SoftServe and using AWS services, SonicWall significantly accelerated its application modernization journey. Using the SAMP framework and with support from the AWS MAP program, SonicWall delivered its MVP in just four weeks—less than half the originally planned timeline of 10 weeks. This rapid implementation accelerated the overall transformation timeline by at least six months. The solution also reduced service onboarding time by 70 percent—from weeks to days—so developers do not have to spend time on infrastructure tasks. Standardized operations improved collaboration between development and operations teams while reducing infrastructure costs. Enhanced observability, combined with real-time performance monitoring, provided actionable insights for data-driven decision-making and operational improvements. 

As SonicWall extended its platform capabilities, it laid the groundwork for future on-premises-to-cloud migrations and seamless scaling across regions. “SoftServe and AWS helped form the backbone of our modernization efforts,” Branco said. “The solution supports our immediate needs and positions us to innovate and keep up with our growth plans. In fact, when SonicWall recently acquired three companies, the new platform made it much easier to set IT standards and streamlined the integration of other environments.” With its new infrastructure and processes in place, SonicWall is now better equipped to navigate complex technical challenges, drive efficiency across its operations, and remain agile.