Konica Minolta’s Workplace Hub has been on the market for over a year, but the company thinks that what it sees as a ‘next-gen’ product is now ready for prime time with their dealer channel, and so they featured it heavily at their Dealer Conference.
Another key software addition is a new Policy Optimizer, that uses network intelligence to find and remove legacy firewall rules that create security issues.
BranchSDO becomes Netsurion’s new flagship product, although the company emphasizes that it won’t lose focus on its managed firewall business and larger customers.
Untangle recently announced their inaugural “Voice of the Channel” survey to determine the state and desires of their small business customers, as well as the priorities of their partners.
Pulse Secure’s NAC solution has addressed the IoT market before, but for the first time they have added functionality specifically designed for Industrial IoT environments.
SonicWall also makes several other announcements, with the common theme being the extension of the company’s hybrid cloud portfolio and capabilities.
Panorama network security management can now handle tens of thousands of firewalls from a single server, up from 1000 per server before.
New features in Pulse Policy Secure include the improvement of Pulse Profiler, the addition of MacOS device support and improved vulnerability assessment capabilities, but from a channel point of view, the most important thing like is likely the deepening of integrations with the major firewall vendors.
Traditional SonicWall partners will be delighted by many new firewalls, while the more platform-focused partners will like the enhanced integrations designed to appeal to a midmarket customer base.
Aruba extends their software-defined architecture to the branch, with the new Cloud Managed 7000 Series Branch Gateways, as well as new Aruba Central abilities to manage them.
Netsurion is looking to an integrated solution set of SD-WAN with SIEM and firewall security to significantly expand their TAM into new verticals, and is seeking to significantly expand their partner base to strengthen them in these new markets.
A surge in ransomware attacks in Q1 re-emphasizes the value proposition of the SonicWall integrated portfolio of solutions, which now combines the Capture Cloud Platform working in concert with other devices in the data centre.
The deal goes beyond the technology integration and makes Pulse Secure and Fortinet strategic partners. The go-to-market element will see the two companies proactively identify a cadre of strong mutual partners, and use them to drive the solution to market.
PASSPORT integrates Aryaka’s traditional enterprise-grade private connectivity with expanded security functionality, including technology from Palo Alto Networks, Zscaler and Radware.
DFLabs is moving to an all-channel model from a hybrid one, and the enhancements – all requested by customers – will make it easier for partners to sell the platform.
Fortinet now has 42 strategic vendor partnerships, which include many direct competitors, and these relationships are critical to their Security Fabric strategy.
Palo Alto Networks next-gen firewall offerings are now available as a service on OPAQ’s platform, in one of only two strategic relationships that OPAQ has.
Improvements to Palo Alto Networks’ Next-Generation Security Platform will extend inline, API-based and host based are protections for all three major public clouds.
The SonicWall Capture Cloud Real-Time Deep Memory Inspection was added as a fourth Capture Cloud engine some months back, and is now being made public because of its ability to block the Meltdown exploit.
SonicWall Capture Client, SonicWall Network Security virtual next-generation firewalls and the SonicWall virtual web application firewall are all scheduled for release in Q2.
