SonicWall is an American cybersecurity company that sells a range of Internet appliances primarily directed at content control and

network security Network security consists of the policies, policies, processes and practices adopted to prevent, detect and monitor unauthorized access, Abuse, misuse, modification, or denial of a computer network and network-accessible resources. Network securi ...

. These include devices providing services for network firewalls, unified threat management (UTM),

virtual private network A virtual private network (VPN) extends a private network across a public network and enables users to send and receive data across shared or public networks as if their computing devices were directly connected to the private network. The be ...

s (VPNs),

virtual firewalls Virtual may refer to: * Virtual (horse), a thoroughbred racehorse * Virtual channel, a channel designation which differs from that of the actual radio channel (or range of frequencies) on which the signal travels * Virtual function, a programming ...

SD-WAN A software-defined wide area network (SD-WAN) is a wide area network that uses software-defined network technology, such as communicating over the Internet using overlay Tunneling protocol, tunnels which are encrypted when destined for internal or ...

cloud security Cloud computing security or, more simply, cloud security refers to a broad set of policies, technologies, applications, and controls utilized to protect virtualized IP, data, applications, services, and the associated infrastructure of cloud com ...

and

anti-spam Various anti-spam techniques are used to prevent email spam (unsolicited bulk email). No technique is a complete solution to the spam problem, and each has trade-offs between incorrectly rejecting legitimate email (false positives) as opposed to ...

for email. The company also markets information subscription services related to their products. The company also assists in solving problems surrounding compliance with the

Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA or the Kennedy– Kassebaum Act) is a United States Act of Congress enacted by the 104th United States Congress and signed into law by President Bill Clinton on August 21, 1 ...

(HIPAA) and the

Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard The Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS) is an information security standard used to handle credit cards from major card brands. The standard is administered by the Payment Card Industry Security Standards Council and its use i ...

(PCI-DSS). Originally a private company headquartered in

Silicon Valley Silicon Valley is a region in Northern California that serves as a global center for high technology and innovation. Located in the southern part of the San Francisco Bay Area, it corresponds roughly to the geographical areas San Mateo County ...

, it went public in 1999, before delisting in 2010. On March 13, 2012, ''

USA Today ''USA Today'' (stylized in all uppercase) is an American daily middle-market newspaper and news broadcasting company. Founded by Al Neuharth on September 15, 1982, the newspaper operates from Gannett's corporate headquarters in Tysons, Virgini ...

'' said that

Dell Dell is an American based technology company. It develops, sells, repairs, and supports computers and related products and services. Dell is owned by its parent company, Dell Technologies. Dell sells personal computers (PCs), servers, data ...

had announced its intent to acquire SonicWall, which then had 130 patents and 950 employees. Dell's acquisition of SonicWall became official on May 9, 2012. On June 20, 2016, Dell sold SonicWall (part of its

Dell Software Dell Software was a division of Dell with headquarters in Round Rock, Texas, United States. Dell Software was created merging various acquisitions (mainly Quest Software and Sonicwall) by Dell Inc., the third-largest maker of PCs and now a pri ...

division) to private equity firm

Francisco Partners Francisco Partners is an American private equity firm focused exclusively on investments in technology and technology-enabled services businesses. Founded in August 1999 and based in San Francisco with offices in London and New York City, Francis ...

and Elliott Management.

History

In 1991, Brothers Sreekanth Ravi and Sudhakar Ravi founded the company under the name Sonic Systems to develop

ethernet Ethernet () is a family of wired computer networking technologies commonly used in local area networks (LAN), metropolitan area networks (MAN) and wide area networks (WAN). It was commercially introduced in 1980 and first standardized in 198 ...

and fast ethernet cards, hubs and bridges for the

Apple An apple is an edible fruit produced by an apple tree (''Malus domestica''). Apple fruit tree, trees are agriculture, cultivated worldwide and are the most widely grown species in the genus ''Malus''. The tree originated in Central Asia, wh ...

market. In the late 1990s, the company released a security product initially called Interpol and later branded SonicWALL, a dedicated hardware appliance with firewall and VPN software intended for the small-business market. As sales for the security appliances rapidly accelerated, the company exited the Apple add-on networking business and refocused exclusively as a network security company. In late 1999, the company changed its name from Sonic Systems to SonicWALL, Inc. to represent the shift to network security, and in November 1999 SonicWall went public on the

Nasdaq The Nasdaq Stock Market () (National Association of Securities Dealers Automated Quotations Stock Market) is an American stock exchange based in New York City. It is the most active stock trading venue in the US by volume, and ranked second ...

with the symbol SNWL. In 2001, SonicWall upgraded its Global Management System (GMS) software to manage more VPN devices. Matthew T. Medeiros (formerly of Philips Components) became CEO in March 2003. SonicWall has acquired several companies during its existence, often expanding its product line in the process. In 2005, SonicWall announced the acquisition of enKoo, and in 2007, SonicWall announced the acquisition of Aventail Corporation. On July 23, 2010, SonicWall announced that it had completed its merger with affiliates of an investor group led by Thoma Bravo, LLC, which included the

Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan The Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan Board (french: Régime de retraite des enseignantes et des enseignants de l'Ontario) is an independent organization responsible for administering defined-benefit pensions for school teachers of the Canadian pr ...

through its private investor department,

Teachers' Private Capital The Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan Board (french: Régime de retraite des enseignantes et des enseignants de l'Ontario) is an independent organization responsible for administering defined-benefit pensions for school teachers of the Canadian pr ...

. After the merger SonicWall was delisted from NASDAQ. On March 13, 2012,

announced that they had signed a definitive agreement to acquire SonicWall. On May 20, 2016, Dell announced the sale of

, which included SonicWall, to private equity firm

and Elliott Management. In March 2021, the SonicWall SecureFirst partner program received a five-star rating in the 2021 CRN Partner Program Guide. On January 22, 2021, SonicWall said it was attacked by "highly sophisticated threat actors" in a potential zero-day attack on certain SonicWall secure remote access products. On January 25, former

lulzsec LulzSec (a contraction for Lulz Security) was a black hat computer hacking group that claimed responsibility for several high profile attacks, including the compromise of user accounts from PlayStation Network in 2011. The group also claimed ...

hacker Darren Martyn announced exploits against old VPN vulnerabilities. These exploits and the January 2021 attack were unrelated; SonicWall confirmed that the Martyn exploits were patched in 2015. On January 7, 2022, SonicWall said that some of its email security and firewall products were hit by the

Y2k22 In computer science, time formatting and storage bugs are a class of software bugs that may cause time and date calculation or display to be improperly handled. These are most commonly manifestations of arithmetic overflow, but can also be the r ...

bug and released patches after a few days. On July 21, 2022, SoncWall announced that former President and CEO Bill Conner would take on the role of Executive Chairmen of the Board. Former SonicWall Chief Revenue Officer Bob VanKirk was named President and CEO.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:SonicWall 1991 establishments in California 2012 mergers and acquisitions Companies acquired by Dell Companies based in San Jose, California American companies established in 1991 Software companies established in 1991 Companies formerly listed on the Nasdaq Computer security companies Content-control software Networking companies of the United States Networking hardware companies Server appliance Software companies based in the San Francisco Bay Area Telecommunications equipment vendors 2016 mergers and acquisitions 1999 initial public offerings Software companies of the United States Private equity portfolio companies