The appliance was cheap. The security services bundle is forever - and when it lapses, the gateway antivirus, intrusion prevention and content filtering you already paid for simply stop working. Then the model goes end of life and you buy the hardware again. We break that cycle.
The model is consistent across the industry and SonicWall is a clear example of it. The hardware is priced to be an easy yes. The capability that makes it a security device - intrusion prevention, gateway antivirus, application control, content filtering - arrives as a subscription bundle that has to be renewed every year or three.
Let that bundle expire and the box keeps passing traffic while quietly ceasing to protect it. That is the part that catches people out: nothing goes down, so nothing raises an alarm. Support is gated the same way - when you most need help, the first question is whether your contract is current.
Meanwhile the appliance ages into end of life, firmware updates stop, and any vulnerability disclosed after that date is yours to live with. The renewal quote and the replacement hardware quote start to look uncomfortably similar, and the pitch for both is fear.
We deploy a modern open edge platform on appropriately sized hardware, configure it to your requirements, and maintain it as part of the co-managed arrangement. The capability is not the differentiator - the licensing model and the ownership are.
| SonicWall as sold | Modern open edge, maintained by us | |
|---|---|---|
| Hardware | Proprietary, fixed lifespan, replaced when the model reaches end of life. | Standard hardware sized for your throughput. Replaceable and re-deployable on your terms. |
| Feature licensing | Security services sold as annual bundles. Tiers determine what you are allowed to turn on. | No per-feature licensing. What the platform does, it does. |
| IPS & filtering | Subscription-gated. Stops updating when the subscription lapses. | Intrusion detection and prevention with maintained rule sets, plus DNS and content filtering, included and kept current by us. |
| VPN | Site-to-site included; client access often tiered by seat count. | IPsec site-to-site and modern WireGuard remote access, with no per-user seat count to police. |
| Segmentation | Supported, but frequently never implemented - one flat network behind one box. | VLAN segmentation designed in, so a compromised workstation does not have a clear path to your servers. |
| Logging | On-device and short-lived, or upsold as a separate reporting product. | Shipped off the device to central logging and retained, so an outage or an intrusion is answerable weeks later. |
| High availability | Usually a second licensed appliance. | An HA pair without a second set of subscriptions. |
| Documentation | Whatever was captured when it was installed, if anything. | Documented build and exportable configuration, recoverable by someone other than the person who built it. |
| If you stop paying | Protection degrades quietly and support ends. | The firewall keeps working exactly as configured. You lose our maintenance, not your perimeter. |
A firewall replacement is a short, sharp change with a hard cutover moment. Everything that can be done in advance is done in advance, and the old unit stays on the shelf configured and ready.
Every rule, NAT, VPN tunnel and port forward is extracted and reviewed. This step routinely finds rules nobody can explain and tunnels to companies that no longer exist - cleaning that up is half the value of the exercise.
Inbound services, remote access users, site-to-site peers, anything with a hard-coded public IP, and any vendor with your current address whitelisted. This list is what the cutover is verified against.
The new platform is built, configured to match the agreed rule set, and tested on the bench before it goes anywhere near your rack.
Typically brief - the physical swap and WAN reassignment is minutes, and the verification afterwards is what takes the time. Where an address change is involved we plan for DNS and peer updates ahead of the window.
Every inbound service, every tunnel, every remote access client - checked, not assumed. VPN peers at other sites are the usual source of surprises and get tested explicitly.
We do not wipe or return your SonicWall on the night. It stays configured and on the shelf for an agreed period, so if something surfaces a week later, reverting is a cable swap - not a rebuild under pressure.
Logs shipped to central logging, the device monitored alongside the rest of your infrastructure, and the build documented. Then it is ours to maintain - firmware, rules and all.
The software underneath modern open firewalls is the same lineage that runs inside a great many commercial appliances and a large share of the internet's infrastructure. The difference between a good firewall and a bad one is almost never the brand on the bezel - it is whether someone competent configured it, keeps it patched, and watches its logs. That is the part we are actually selling.
Maintained, regularly updated rule sets - the same feeds a lot of commercial products build on. Keeping them current and tuned to your traffic is part of what we do, rather than a line item that expires.
Us. Not a queue, and not a support contract that has to be verified before anyone will speak to you. That is the whole basis of the co-managed model - you are not being handed a box and wished luck.
Not a problem. Standards-based IPsec interoperates, so a replaced firewall at head office can keep its tunnels to SonicWalls at branches. Plenty of clients migrate one site at a time for exactly this reason.
Tell us the framework and we will map the controls explicitly - segmentation, IPS, filtering, logging and retention, access control, change documentation. Auditors ask for evidence of controls and of who maintains them. Being able to produce a documented configuration and real retained logs tends to be a stronger position than a licence certificate.
Hardware appropriate to your throughput, a one-off deployment, and ongoing maintenance as part of the co-managed arrangement. For most small and mid-sized sites the recurring figure is materially below a comparable security services renewal, and it does not escalate at every anniversary. We will put real numbers against your actual renewal rather than quote a range.
Close to it. Most of the work happens before the window. The unavoidable interruption is the physical swap, which is minutes - and in HA or multi-WAN setups it can often be reduced further. We schedule it out of hours regardless.
Firewall subscriptions. Hypervisor licensing. Backup seat counts. Per-endpoint tooling. Individually they are line items - together they are a business you do not control, renewing on somebody else's schedule at somebody else's price.
A technical conversation, not a discovery call.
Tell us the model, when the services expire, your internet speed and how many sites and remote users you have. We will come back with what we would put in and what it costs against your renewal.
We do not share your details, and we will not add you to a drip campaign.