• Dell SonicWALL Secure Mobile Access 100 Series OS 8.5 empowers IT with easy-to-use policy-enforced management tools that allow for quick adjustments to ensure that authorised users and trusted devices have easy, secure access to corporate data
• Business users increase productivity and enhance work/life balance with access to data whenever they need it from wherever they are, on the devices they choose

Dell Securitytoday announced the release of Dell SonicWALL Secure Mobile Access (SMA) 100 Series OS 8.5, which provides mobile and remote workers at small- and medium-sized businesses with policy-enforced SSL VPN access to mission-critical applications, data and resources without compromising security. This newest version of the Dell SonicWALL SMA 100 Series OS affords enhanced security to customers by allowing administrators to quickly and easily provision secure mobile access and role-based privileges so workers using smart phones, tablets or laptops (managed or unmanaged) get fast, simple and secure access.  At the same time, the solution enables organisations to institute BYOD security policies to protect their corporate networks and data from rogue access and malware.

The proliferation of devices in the workplace, both employer-issued and personally owned, has increased the demand for secure mobile access to company applications, data and resources. Often, employees use the same device for both business and personal use, resulting in the intermingling of business and personal data and applications. This places organisations at increased risk for security breaches such as:

• Unauthorised access to networks and systems from lost or stolen devices
• Malware and ransomware spread through infected devices that serve as conduits
• Interception of organisation data in-flight on unsecured public Wi-Fi networks

Securing mobile devices is becoming increasingly difficult as companies often no longer influence device selection or control device management.  To protect from threats and still enable access for remote and mobile workers, an organisation must ensure that only authorised users and approved devices meeting security policy requirements are granted network and resource access, and company data on the device is secure.

Dell SonicWALL Secure Mobile Access (SMA) 100 Series OS 8.5 benefits both IT and business users

The new enhancements to the Dell SonicWALL SMA 100 Series OS provide greater control and ease-of-use for companies in setting policy controls, allowing users to access the data they need from the devices they use and without skimping on security. The SMA 100 series is compatible with all commonly used devices across Windows, iOS, Mac OS X, Android, Linux, Kindle Fire, and Chrome, to provide mobile users secure access to network resources including shared folders, client-server applications, intranet sites, email, and remote and virtual desktop services.

This helps IT to become the “Department of YES” by enabling administrators to configure security policies that provide best-in-class, context-aware authentication that grants access only to authorised users through trusted devices. New functionality enhancements in OS version 8.5 include:

• Policy Wizards ‒ Easy-to-use wizards to deploy policies for OWA, ActiveSync, Outlook Anywhere and Autodiscover. This saves IT administrators considerable time for the most commonly created policies, making them more productive, and it lowers the company’s overall TCO.
• HTML5 Enhancements‒ Provide end users with a rich access experience within their own choice of web browser, eliminating their need to download, install and maintain additional software on their systems.  Everything can be run from within the context of the browser window, making connection to resources very easy and with zero-day support of all major operating systems and browsers.
• Virtual Host Multicore Support ‒Increases resource capacity of host resources that can be accessed by SMA to provide greater reliability and performance at higher concurrencies of connected users. With this additional resource capacity, concurrent user maximum increases from 50 to 250.  Lastly, to align across the entire portfolio, this product previously known as “SRA SMB Virtual Appliance” has now been renamed “SMA 500v.”

In addition, noteworthy recent functionality enhancements to Dell SonicWALL SMA 100 series include:

• Web Application Firewall (WAF) Enhancements ‒ Helping to secure internal web applications from remote users, the Dell SonicWALL award-winning WAF engine has been enhanced to detect against additional exploits and threats. This allows customers to ensure that confidentiality of data and internal web services remains uncompromised if a malicious or rogue authenticated user should gain access.
• Geo IP Detection and Botnet Protection ‒Grants customers with a mechanism to allow or restrict user access from various geographical locations. This also provides additional protection from a compromised endpoint participating in a botnet, further verifying the validity of the connecting device.
• End Point Control (EPC) Enhancements ‒Various enhancements to the SMA EPC engine provide greater assurance that the endpoint accessing the network is trusted and not malicious.

Supporting Quote:

Patrick Sweeney, vice president, product management and marketing, Dell Security

“Due to resource restraints, SMBs often struggle to simultaneously keep up with today’s security requirements and ensure that workers can remain productive while on-the-go.  It’s a balancing act for IT to keep employees productive, with the flexibility to access corporate data whenever and from wherever they are on the device(s) they choose, while ensuring that business assets and the organisation have the level of security needed to fend off today’s shapeshifting threats. The new, easy-to-use policy-enforced management tools in the Dell SonicWALL SMA 100 Series OS 8.5 allow IT to make quick adjustments that enforce authorised access to enhance productivity ‒ rather than create a barrier to the business ‒ allowing IT to become the “Department of YES.”