Tuesday, 6 December 2005 15:49 EST

Secure, Reliable POS System Drives Improved Productivity and Revenue Opportunities

SUNNYVALE, Calif., Dec. 6 SonicWALL, Inc. (Nasdaq: SNWL - News) today announced specialty retailer, Spencer Gifts LLC, has begun its deployment of a 630-store, national network featuring SonicWALL security solutions. Spencer Gifts aims to increase productivity and drive new revenue opportunities by installing a new IP-based network using SonicWALL firewalls, Unified Threat Management (UTM) services and management software to secure point of sale (POS) transactions, protect data exchange and maintain constant access to inventory data for stores across the country.

Spencer Gifts stores are being equipped with SonicWALL TZ 170 SP firewalls running SonicWALL gateway threat protection and content filtering services. Two SonicWALL PRO 5060 gigabit-class firewalls, paired for failover, act as the hub of the secure network at headquarters. The SonicWALL devices are designed to protect the network against Internet-delivered threats such as worms, Trojans, viruses, spy ware and spam, but also enable Spencer Gifts to regulate Internet access and bandwidth usage through the precise capabilities of its content filtering application.

"The irony is while we're driving more productivity and revenue by switching to broadband POS systems, we need to be far more careful about Internet vulnerabilities," says David Powell, manager, Network and Computing Services, Spencer Gifts. "It's a whole new ballgame building an IP network for hundreds of stores that needs to function even if a broadband connection is lost, and has to protect private customer and business information, not to mention facilitate the business of managing the entire network. With SonicWALL, we're reaping real-time POS application benefits while protecting highly confidential information. It allows us to be far more productive."

For more than 40 years, Spencer Gifts has specialized in innovative, humorous and unique merchandise. The retailer aims to increase customer satisfaction with its new broadband network. Spencer Gifts had previously relied on dial-up to connect their POS system. With the transition to broadband, the average transaction time for credit card transactions has been cut from 16 seconds to just two, and connectivity bandwidth has been increased enabling other applications to be deployed to their stores.

According to Powell, "The switch to broadband has culminated in a shared playground of connectivity and security. We must quickly deploy and manage 630-plus connected devices, providing comprehensive managed VPN support to keep all of our sites in synch with the latest security policies. The SonicWALL Global Management System (SonicWALL GMS) has been a real asset. We're managing all of the in-store SonicWALL Internet security appliances from a central location and we're simplifying the task of globally deploying a range of security policies, services and upgrades. It's centralized secure management made easy."

Spencer Gifts is currently rolling out 630 SonicWALL TZ 170 SP devices in its stores, with two SonicWALL PRO 5060 high-performance, multi-service gigabit network security platforms in Spencer Gifts' headquarters, Egg Harbor Township, New Jersey (close to Atlantic City). The SonicWALL TZ 170 SP appliances with dual broadband and dial-up fail over, deliver advanced security in each store by integrating support for SonicWALL's Gateway and Firewall Service, thereby providing real-time protection against viruses, spyware, worms, Trojans and other threats. The PRO 5060 integrates high-speed gateway anti-virus, anti-spyware, intrusion prevention, content filtering and anti-spam capabilities along with advanced wireless LAN features, deep inspection firewall and IPSec VPN into a single platform.

Spencer Gifts manages the PRO 5060s and TZ 170s through the SonicWALL GMS, a "user friendly, feature-rich interface that allows us to see firewalls working in every store," says Powell. "We're able to push uniform VPN policies to all our sites. Reports are available at a push of the button. It's a powerful, intuitive management system that speeds up deployment and allows IT to focus on other priority projects."

"Another characteristic that narrowed the field for our choice of vendor is continuous VPN connectivity based on SonicWALL incorporating automatic failover to dialup should the broadband connection go down," continues Powell. "Our stores need to speed up transaction times, not keep customers waiting. Downtime means unhappy customers and lost revenue. We can't have that." The Spencer Gifts IP network is also providing secure, fast and reliable connectivity for traveling district managers who move from store to store using SonicWALL Global VPN Client (GVC), which enables employees to access business-critical network resources from wherever they are on the road.

About Spencer Gifts LLC

Spencer Gifts LLC is a lifestyle retail brand that has been focused on delivering humor and enjoyment to peoples lives for over 50 years. Spencer's operates over 630 stores throughout the United States and Canada. Specializing in innovative, humorous and unique merchandise, Spencer's is the mall destination for entertainment, excitement and fun for our core Generation-Y guest.

About SonicWALL, Inc.

SonicWALL, Inc. is a leading provider of integrated network security, mobility, and productivity solutions for the SMB, enterprise, e-commerce, education, healthcare, retail/point-of-sale, and government markets. SonicWALL, Inc. is headquartered in Sunnyvale, CA. The company trades on the NASDAQ exchange under the symbol SNWL. For more information, contact SonicWALL at + or visit the company web site at http://www.sonicwall.com/