SonicWALL Extends Channel Leadership With New Innovative Offerings to Resellers in the SMB and Enterprise Markets

SUNNYVALE, Calif., Jan. 13 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- SonicWALL, Inc. (NASDAQ: SNWL) , a leading secure network infrastructure company, today announced the introduction of SonicWALL Channel 2.0, a dramatic restructuring of its entire channel program that empowers channel resellers to better serve all market tiers. Channel 2.0 offers new exclusive benefits and increased levels of support to SonicWALL's most committed partners to help them become more competitive and profitable in 2009. SonicWALL has expanded its commitment to its core SMB channel with significant enhancements to the Medallion Partner Program, and broadened the company's enterprise reach with the introduction of the Enterprise Integrator Specialization Program.

Channel 2.0 deepens SonicWALL's long-standing leadership in the channel. SonicWALL was voted by the partner community as the Network Security Appliance Company of the Year in the 2008 VARBusiness Annual Report Card Awards -- and is the only security vendor to receive this prestigious honor in four of the past five years. Channel 2.0 will improve the award-winning partner program with vital new program benefits and help SonicWALL partners achieve their financial goals in the current economic climate.

"In the current business environment, the strongest resellers have the opportunity to leap ahead of the competition and strengthen their businesses -- and SonicWALL's Channel 2.0 will help our most loyal partners do just that," said Marvin Blough, Vice President of Worldwide Sales. "SonicWALL's Channel 2.0 initiative offers new market opportunities across the entire channel, with a straightforward -- yet revolutionary -- approach to tiered channel pricing and benefits. Our enhanced Medallion Partner Program for the SMB market, and new Enterprise Integrator and Managed Service Provider Specializations are designed to help resellers win new clients, close larger deals, and enhance their financial performance."

SonicWALL has been a trusted leader in the channel for more than twelve years, offering the Medallion Partner Program based on SonicWALL's comprehensive offering of high-performance security products and services. Channel 2.0 introduces the following enhancements to SonicWALL's reseller program:

New Program Benefits

SonicWALL reinforced its support for its core SMB channel base, introducing enhanced program benefits and growth incentives for its Medallion Partners. The new benefits include:

    -- Deal Registration Program provides resellers that register deals in
       process with an additional discount and presales assistance thereby
       increasing their chance of success.
    -- Partner Rewards Program is similar to frequent flyer programs by
       allowing Medallion Partners to earn credits for closing sales that can
       be redeemed for cash or applied towards training or other benefits.
    -- Stretch Goal Rebates provide partners with quarterly rebates based on
       exceeding predefined revenue thresholds.
    -- Partner Locator prominently features Gold and Silver partners on
       SonicWALL's Web site, connecting partners with new clients and selling
       opportunities.
    -- PERCS Renewals Program provides renewals sales assistance and renewals
       commissions to provide partners security and protection for their
       clients, while realizing the full client life-cycle value.

SonicWALL also has added 10 new representatives to its Partner Excellence Center in Tempe, Arizona, who are solely dedicated to supporting Medallion Partners in selling to the SMB market.

Enterprise Integrator Specialization

The new Enterprise Integrator Specialization is designed to meet the increased demand for SonicWALL's security products and services in the enterprise market. Along with all the benefits of the SonicWALL Medallion program, qualifying SonicWALL Enterprise Integrator members also receive important additional benefits, including:

    -- Limited Access -- Only Enterprise Integrator members will be able to
       sell the award-winning SonicWALL Aventail E-Class Secure Remote Access
       (SRA) product line. Enterprise Integrator program members may elect to
       join a teaming program to help smaller value-added resellers (VARs)
       provision SRA solutions.
    -- Evaluation Compensation Program -- Enterprise Integrators have access
       to no charge evaluation of SonicWALL Aventail hardware and an industry
       unique "pay to provision" compensation program whereby SonicWALL pays
       the billable hours for the installation of qualifying evaluations.
    -- Members receive access to many of SonicWALL's Fortune 2000 installed
       base of SonicWALL Aventail E-Class SRA management accounts.
    -- Enterprise Integrator members receive priority technical support from
       SonicWALL's top enterprise sales and engineering staff, as well as
       dedicated 8x5 post-sales technical support.
    -- Members receive 24x7x365 online training, and expert Webinar trainings.

Managed Service Provider (MSP) Specialization

The new SonicWALL MSP Specialization is designed to meet the needs of partners selling full managed security services. Today, a "security-as-a-service" model provides higher levels of protection for the client, while generating predictable, ongoing revenue streams for the SonicWALL partner. The new MSP Specialization meets the unique needs of these partners, offers the opportunity to realize enhanced profit margins on select security service and software SKUs, and provides priority access to SonicWALL's most elite, Level 3 technical support engineers.

For more information please visit: http://www.sonicwall.com.

About SonicWALL, Inc.

SonicWALL is committed to improving the performance and productivity of businesses of all sizes by engineering the cost and complexity out of running a secure network. Over one million SonicWALL appliances have been shipped through its global network of ten thousand channel partners to keep tens of millions of worldwide business computer users safe and in control of their data. SonicWALL's award-winning solutions include network security, secure remote access, content security, backup and recovery, and policy and management technology. For more information, visit the company web site at http://www.sonicwall.com/.

Safe Harbor Regarding Forward-Looking Statements

Certain statements in this press release are "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. The forward-looking statements include but are not limited to statements regarding the benefits associated with Channel 2.0 restructuring, the expansion of SonicWALL's commitment to the SMB market segment, the broadening of SonicWALL's enterprise reach, the benefits associated with the enhanced Medallion Partner Program, the Enterprise Integrator Program and the Managed Service Provider Specialization Program, and the additional dedicated resources available at SonicWALL's Partner Excellence Center. These forward-looking statements are based on the opinions and estimates of management at the time the statements are made and are subject to certain risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those anticipated in the forward-looking statements. In addition, please see the "Risk Factors" described in our Securities and Exchange Commission filings, including our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2007, for a more detailed description of the risks facing our business. All forward-looking statements included in this release are based upon information available to SonicWALL as of the date of the release, and we assume no obligation to update any such forward-looking statement.

NOTE: SonicWALL is a registered trademark of SonicWALL, Inc. Other product and company names mentioned herein may be trademarks and/or registered trademarks of their respective companies.