About Network Security Manager

SonicWall Network Security Manager (NSM) is the next generation firewall management application that provides a holistic approach to security management. The approach is grounded in the principles of simplifying and automating various tasks to achieve better security operation and decision-making, while reducing the complexity and time required. NSM gives you everything you need for firewall management; it provides comprehensive visibility, granular control and the capacity to govern the entire SonicWall network security operations with greater clarity, precision and speed. This is all managed from a single, function-packed interface that can be accessed from any location using a browser-enable device. Firewalls can be centrally managed to provision all the network security services with a single-pane-of-glass experience.

This security management platform is a SaaS (Software-as-a-Service) or an on-premises offering, depending on your needs. The SaaS offering is accessible on-demand, via the cloud, with virtually unlimited system scalability to support multiple tenants with thousands of security nodes under each one. The solution’s redundant and distributed architecture enables organizations to centrally and reliably manage a single small network to one or more enterprise-class deployments with the flexibility to scale without increasing management and administrative overhead.

The on-premises offering is for those customers that don't want to opt for a cloud solution. It can be deployed on multiple form factors such as ESXi and Hyper-V. The architecture allows you to scale to 10,000 devices under management and will support migration from Global Management System (GMS) in the future release.

NSM offers many salient features:

• On-boarding hundreds of devices with Zero-Touch Deployment easily
• Group devices based on geographic location, business functions or customers with Device Groups
• Enforce consistent security across all your devices with Device Templates
• Make informed decision and policy actions to any threat, quickly and in real time, with detailed reporting and powerful analytics

NSM can manage both Gen6 and Gen7 SonicWall firewalls. SonicOS 6.4.5 is the minimum version allowed for management by NSM.