Francisco Partners, a leading technology-focused private equity firm, and Elliott Management today announced the completion of the acquisition of Dell Software Group and the spin out of SonicWall as an independent company. SonicWall, known for its 25 years of innovation in the cybersecurity industry, protects more than a million customer networks worldwide.

“SonicWall is trusted by customers and channel partners in 40 countries worldwide,” said Dipanjan “DJ” Deb, Francisco Partners’ CEO. “As we have worked closely with SonicWall in recent months, it has become even clearer to us how laser focused SonicWall is on innovating next-generation network security solutions to serve customers and partners. This acquisition will better enable SonicWall to continue their journey in delivering world class solutions to their large and dedicated base of customers and help them to defend against the explosive growth of new cybersecurity threats. ”

SonicWall protects customers’ networks with solutions including the Capture Advanced Threat Protection Service that revolutionizes advanced threat detection and sandboxing with a multi-engine approach to stopping unknown and zero-day attacks, and with automated remediation. The company serves organizations of any size worldwide with specific strengths in large distributed environments, campus education, retail, financial, healthcare and government institutions.

The newly standalone SonicWall named cybersecurity and networking industries veteran Bill Conner as its President and CEO. Conner previously served as CEO of Silent Circle and CEO of Entrust as well as President of Data Networks and then President of Enterprise Networks at Nortel Networks.

“If you look at the headlines about cybersecurity threats, we are in the midst of a cybersecurity arms race,” said Conner. “As a standalone SonicWall brand, we can act even more deftly and quickly to serve channel partners and customers by offering products and services second to none. To protect customers against sophisticated cybersecurity threats, we are continuing our commitment to product innovation to serve our customers and invest in our partners who operate as an extension of the SonicWall team.”

“SonicWall has long had an excellent reputation in the security industry,” said Robert Ayoub, Research Director in IDC’s Security Products program. “Security remains the number one concern for many of our clients, so there is definitely an interest in the marketplace for what SonicWall sells.”

SonicWall claims that among several key milestones this year, the number of new partners offering SonicWall’s solutions grew by 20 percent in the last year. SonicWall’s Capture Advanced Threat Prevention Service has analyzed more than four million suspicious files since the service’s launch in August.

To continue its commitment and investment in the channel, today SonicWall also announced its SonicWall SecureFirst Partner Program, introducing increased reward for value benefits, deal protection and expanded technical enablement on the SonicWall portfolio.

Conner added, “It’s not only SonicWall’s relationships with channel partners that have made the company a global leader—it’s the company’s continuous achievements in innovation. SonicWall customers’ networks now are protected by one of the most advanced tools on the market, the cloud-based Capture Advanced Threat Protection Service, thanks to great work by SonicWall’s product engineering team. Becoming an independent company will give us the freedom to move faster when responding to growing cyber threats and bringing new solutions to customers.”

Dell will continue to resell SonicWall’s entire product portfolio as it has done since before the acquisition by Dell.

SonicWall channel partners from around the globe have been supportive of today’s announcement.

From the UAE, Samir Chopra, CISSP, Regional Director, RNS Technology Services said, “SonicWall is an exciting brand to work with and we believe this new chapter will be no different. The partner program looks strong and we’re excited to continue building on our growth in the Middle East. The security market is constantly evolving and we know that by working with SonicWall we can help our customers keep their critical data safe.”