SonicWall To Mix Security, Backup With Lasso Buy

San Francisco-based startup Lasso Logic&'s continuous data protection appliance is billed as a “hands-free” solution to backup for small businesses. The product starts at about $2,000.

SonicWall CEO Matt Medeiros told CRN that the two technologies will be integrated with SonicWall&'s multifunction security gateway appliances to create a complete data protection and recovery solution that is affordable for small business customers. The deal was announced Monday morning.

The Lasso acquisition is a smart move for SonicWall and good for the industry, said Rich Forsen, president of Network Depot, a Herndon, Va., solution provider. “The world will finally realize that backup and security are the same thing,” he said.

SonicWall&'s channel muscle also will give Internet backup category leader LiveVault a run for its money, Forsen said. “LiveVault is the 800 pound gorilla in the Internet backup space,” he said. “The cool thing is that Lasso has been a fly on the nose of Live Vault, but that fly just became a fist.”

Medeiros said Lasso&'s tape-free appliance can profile data on a network and store only critical data. That capability, combined with SonicWall&'s content filtering and deep packet inspection technology, will allow Sonicwall to create a solution that enables SMBs to stop critical data from leaving a network as well as stop harmful traffic from entering, Medeiros said.

Full product integration under a unified management platform will take about six months, he said.

SonicWall Wednesday also acquired San Jose, Calif.-based SSL VPN vendor EnKoo.

Both companies&' products also were designed with the channel in mind, which played heavily in the decision to acquire them, Medeiros said. The products will be available to Sonicwall&'s U.S. channel partners immediately.

While the company did not release financial details of the deals, Medeiros told CRN that SonicWall paid less than $20 million for both acquisitions.