Dell Security Adds 50 Percent Rebate On SonicWall TZ And NSA Appliances

Dell Security has launched a 50 percent instant rebate program on Dell SonicWall TZ and NSA appliances in a drive to boost the market momentum the company says it has gained in recent quarters.

The Round Rock, Texas, company unveiled the rebate program at its Dell Security Peak Performance 2015 event in Las Vegas on Monday. The event, sponsored in part by CRN's parent, The Channel Company, attracted about 700 of Dell's worldwide partners.

Specifically, the program gives Peak conference attendees working with distributors Ingram Micro, Securematics, Tech Data, D&H Distributing and Synnex the opportunity to get a 50 percent instant rebate on certain Dell SonicWall TZ and NSA appliances sold Sept. 1-11.

[Related: Dell Security Chief: SonicWall Trounces Cisco On Price, Performance And Ease of Use]

The rebates are designed as signals to channel partners that Dell Security is growing at a good clip and committed to the channel as its primary sales strategy.

"We're feeling the growth, and now we're selling Dell products along with SonicWall," said Michael Gray, director of network operations at Tewksbury, Mass.-based Dell partner Thrive Networks. Gray said Thrive's Dell business is growing by "strong single digits" annually, and is seeing "a ton of growth in the midmarket and enterprise."

"And now, even smaller customers want the bigger firewalls, and they're more expensive," Gray said. "They want bigger and better and faster, and they don't care as much about how much it costs, because they're relying on it more heavily. It was like pulling teeth a few years ago, but now they can't get enough. They don't even look like sales opportunities anymore. They're just simple transactions."

Those transactions, Gray said, are displacing competitors, including hardware stalwart Cisco, Gray said.

"We're not seeing any kind of slowdown," Gray said. "The economy is driving it. We're getting in front of deals we weren't getting before. Customers who were Cisco customers are now saying, 'We want you to sell us a SonicWall.' "

According to Dell, 12,000 partners sold SonicWall products in the past 12 months. In that same time, the number of deal registrations increased 7 percent, to more than 4,100 per quarter, and the number of partners submitting deal registrations increased 12 percent, to 1,300 per quarter.

Dell also said 8,700 partners representing 1,700 partner companies took network security courses in that time period, and 320 partners earned Dell's network security competency, lifting the total number of Dell Preferred- and Premier-level partners to 1,500.

Dell also said it has added 60 new members to its channel team and intends to double channel marketing spending.

id
unit-1659132512259
type
Sponsored post

Dell Security Solutions chief Curtis Hutcheson said Dell is part of a small group of security vendors, along with Palo Alto Networks and Fortinet, breaking away from the rest of the market.

"We are going to help build a pre-eminent set of security VARs and help that pack break away," he told CRN. "It's not going to be about a vendor, or a technology. It's going to be about VARs who really understand the risk, and can make the right decisions and deal with problems when they arise. That helps them differentiate themselves from other security VARs."

Those that are successful will have the luxury of a large and growing market with a significant 'value gap,' " Hutcheson said.

Dell Security cites estimates that indicate the cost of security incidents is $650 billion a year. However, companies spend less than $200 billion annually on security, Hutcheson said.

"That's a value gap," Hutcheson said, "but we have to show customers we can close that gap."

PUBLISHED AUG. 31, 2015