McHenry Savings Bank Dramatically Enhances Network Performance, Achieves Cost Savings and Ease of Management

SAN JOSE, Calif., Jan. 26, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- SonicWALL, Inc., the leading provider of intelligent network security and data protection solutions, today announced that McHenry Savings Bank (MSB) has successfully deployed the SonicWALL WAN Acceleration solution to enhance the WAN application performance of its distributed network of banks. MSB's SonicWALL WXA 4000 integrates seamlessly with the bank's existing SonicWALL E-Class NSA E5500 Series Next-Generation Firewall at its headquarters. Using the NSA E5500, MSB successfully switched from costly point-to-point T1 connections to a mesh network over a virtual private network (VPN). The full service bank also deployed a SonicWALL WXA 2000 with SonicWALL NSA 240 and TZ 210 Series Next-Generation Firewalls at its distributed sites. MSB offers a complete line of deposit and loan products serving the banking needs of the residents of McHenry County, Illinois, since 1955.

To address fluctuating latency on its Internet connections, which impacted the performance of one of its core financial applications, McHenry Savings Bank decided to deploy a WAN acceleration solution.

"Our previous vendor only guaranteed functionality of its application if throughput stays within a specific millisecond timeframe before it times out," said Bryan Nash, CIO at McHenry Savings Bank. "We were getting on the verge of not making it. It's mission-critical for our tellers to be able to process customer transactions on time."

In order to resolve this issue, Nash evaluated WAN acceleration solutions from Riverbed® and SonicWALL.

"Because the SonicWALL WAN accelerator is run and managed through the SonicWALL firewall, I didn't have to manage multiple vendors and devices, or spend time learning a separate interface," said Nash. "When comparing the solutions, I found that Riverbed's quote and ongoing maintenance fees were prohibitive. I had the SonicWALL solution up and running in a day and a half. With Riverbed, it would have taken a day to just fill out all the information they wanted on my environment, then another separate day for each office."

By implementing the WXA solution, MSB has eliminated the bank's problem with latency fluctuation, restored application service levels and dramatically improved performance. MSB has also achieved a cost-savings of $24,000 a year from not having to reinstall T1 connections.

"We have absolutely no problems with teller functionality, throughput has gone up and printing speed has increased," said Nash. "We are seeing nothing but bonuses from deploying the solution. The ease of deployment also saved us from having to go through complex manipulations on the WXA and firewall. It is really just as easy as adding another policy on the firewall. With SonicWALL, time really is money."

As an additional benefit, MSB can now leverage the potential of its fully meshed VPN. MSB runs a completely virtualized environment comprised of virtual desktops at the branches and Voice over IP. This is optimized by the integration of the SonicWALL WXA Series appliances with SonicWALL Next-Generation Firewalls.

The WXA Series appliances significantly increase WAN application performance for MSB by transmitting only new or changed data across the network. Unlike standalone products, WXA is an integrated add-on to SonicWALL firewalls, thus simplifying deployment, configuration, routing and management. When deployed in conjunction with SonicWALL Application Intelligence and Control, the WXA offers the unique combined benefit of both prioritizing application traffic and minimizing traffic between sites. The WXA is available in a hardware appliance, virtual appliance or Live CD format.

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About McHenry Savings Bank
McHenry Savings Bank is a full service financial institution with a complete line of deposit and loan products serving the banking needs of the residents of McHenry County, Illinois since 1955.

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 © 2012 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.