Lee's Summit School District Deploys SonicWALL Next-Generation Firewall for Application Control and Intrusion Prevention

SAN JOSE, Calif., March 11, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- SonicWALL, Inc., the leading provider of intelligent network security and data protection solutions, today announced that the Lee's Summit R-7 School District in Missouri has deployed the SonicWALL® E-Class NSA E7500 Next-Generation Firewall. This recent deployment allows them to provide application control and intrusion prevention, as well as web content filtering for all of its 18,000 students and 3,000 employees. The Lee's Summit School District's extensive network supports a total of 18 elementary schools, three middle schools, and three high schools.

Recognized nationally for its high quality educational programs, the Lee's Summit School District has been awarded Missouri's "Distinction in Performance" award, the state's highest recognition for academic achievement. In order to maintain this level of performance, the district needed a solution that would continue to meet the requirements of the Children's Internet Protection Act (CIPA). It requires the filtering of prohibited content such as violence, gambling and pornography from student access. When faced with the challenge of choosing a firewall that would meet these filtering requirements, along with a product that would handle increased bandwidth, Lee's Summit decided to replace its Cisco® PIX 525® firewall with the E-Class NSA E7500. The main reasons the district chose the SonicWALL product was its unique ability to control access to proxy servers, restrict application-specific traffic, and its ability to offer SSL VPN functionality to its entire staff.

"We maxed out our Internet pipe," said Dr. Don Andrews, executive director of technology for the Lee's Summit R-7 School District. "It is imperative for us to be able to guarantee and prioritize bandwidth for our high-priority applications. Online testing, end-of-course state assessments, video conferencing, and curriculum applications are just some of the Internet based applications which need to operate flawlessly."

The school district worked with Professional Network Solutions®, a SonicWALL Gold Medallion Partner, to purchase and deploy the NSA E7500. Bill Ryan, senior consultant at Professional Network Solutions stated, "Lee's Summit School District is a visionary district that thinks outside of the box. They wanted a solution that not only had a rich feature set but also allowed for a lot of manageability. They wanted something that could meet their needs of today and also for years to come."

Engineered to meet the needs of extensive networks like that of Lee's Summit, the NSA E7500 combines SonicWALL Reassembly-Free Deep Packet Inspection™ (RFDPI) with a multi-core platform. The E7500 is configurable to analyze and control thousands of unique applications. Whether unencrypted or encrypted with SSL, it provides an extra layer of network security and visibility. In addition, it also offers secure SSL VPN remote access to ensure a continuous high availability network connection.

SonicWALL, Inc. provides network security and data protection solutions that enable customers and partners - around the world – to dynamically secure, control, and scale their global networks. The security solutions are smart enough to adapt dynamically as organizations and threats evolve globally. SonicWALL provides unique capabilities for next-generation firewalls, network security services and secure remote access appliances. Solutions are available for companies of all verticals and sizes and are deployed in large campus environments, distributed enterprise settings, government, retail point-of-sale and healthcare segments as well as through service providers.

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About Lee's Summit School District

Lee's Summit R-7 School District, partnering with families and the community, is committed to the academic, physical, emotional and social well-being of each student. Through continuous improvement we excel student achievement. Our success is realized as students become life-long learners and productive members of the global society.

About SonicWALL, Inc.

Guided by its vision of Dynamic Security for the Global Network, SonicWALL develops advanced intelligent network security and data protection solutions that adapt as organizations evolve and as threats evolve. Trusted by small and large enterprises worldwide, SonicWALL solutions are designed to detect and control applications and protect networks from intrusions and malware attacks through award-winning hardware, software and virtual appliance-based solutions. For more information, visit http://www.sonicwall.com/.

Copyright © 2011 SonicWALL, Inc. All rights reserved. SONICWALL® is a registered trademark of SonicWALL, Inc. and all other SonicWALL product and service names and slogans are trademarks or registered trademarks of SonicWALL, Inc. Other product and company names mentioned herein may be trademarks and/or registered trademarks of their respective owners.

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SOURCE SonicWALL, Inc.