-B Swaminathan
In 2026, the cybersecurity landscape has moved past the “experimental” phase of Zero Trust and into a period of operational necessity. As organizations face a “double-edged sword” where AI supercharges both defensive response times and the sophistication of automated phishing and ransomware, the traditional network perimeter has effectively vanished. Yuvraj Pradhan, Senior Director of Solutions Engineering (APJ) at SonicWall, as discusses the transition from legacy VPNs to modern Zero Trust architectures.
SonicWall has been a leader in firewall and VPN technology for decades; why is the company now signaling a shift toward Cloud Secure Edge, and does this mean the era of the traditional VPN is officially over?
Yuvraj Pradhan: Absolutely. For decades, SonicWall has been a leader in the Firewall (NGFW) and VPN space. However, in this new era of exponential growth in digital transformation and hybrid work environments, we are seeing a shift as organizations adopt modern solutions. Legacy VPNs have been the backbone of the internet for more than two decades, but despite their historical utility, they are no longer sufficient to protect today’s modern environments. They are now seen as vulnerable, outdated, and ill-equipped to meet the needs of modern enterprises.
In 2026, traditional VPNs continue to be a prime target since they offer a gateway to sensitive data and systems. This requires organizations to update their security strategies. Modern remote access methods, such as Cloud Secure Edge, must be adopted as organizations continue to adapt to distributed workforces, cloud applications, and growing security threats.
Many security vendors talk about “Zero Trust” as a buzzword, but how does Cloud Secure Edge move beyond the marketing to actually verify identity and device health before a single packet of data is sent?
Yuvraj Pradhan: It is true that there is a lot of hype around Zero Trust, with every security vendor claiming to deliver it. SonicWall is unique in the way it relies on a device certificate to authenticate the device from which an end user is accessing a service or an application. SonicWall Cloud Secure Edge uses certificate-based authentication, also known as “cert-auth.” These intelligent certificates tie the device to the user; without them, access will not even be considered. Once the user is identified, the device identity and posture assessment process is completed, and a dynamic Trust Score is generated, after which access is allowed. This posture is continuously verified through the Trust Score to provide ongoing security, thus delivering true Zero Trust Access.
Indian IT teams often face a trade-off between tight security and a smooth user experience; how does CSE’s use of intelligent routing and the WireGuard protocol improve performance for the end-user compared to legacy remote access tools?
Yuvraj Pradhan: This trade-off is very real in India, especially with geographically distributed users and latency-sensitive applications. Cloud Secure Edge improves performance by eliminating the traditional backhaul model, where traffic is forced through centralized data centers. Instead, users connect to the nearest secure edge, and traffic is routed intelligently to the application. Cloud Secure Edge also supports “Private Edge,” which is deployed in the customer’s environment for secure and faster access. The use of modern protocols like WireGuard significantly reduces connection overhead, improves encryption efficiency, and speeds up tunnel establishment. The result is faster login times, lower latency, and more stable connectivity to applications.
Enterprise-grade Security Service Edge (SSE) is often seen as too complex for smaller organizations; how is SonicWall making this technology accessible and manageable for the mid-market and MSP communities?
Yuvraj Pradhan: Contrary to the perception that Security Service Edge (SSE) is complex to deploy—especially for smaller businesses—SonicWall Cloud Secure Edge is a cloud-native, simplified, and user-friendly solution that can be deployed in a matter of weeks, if not days. MSPs can perform fast deployments with easy management to get clients up and running quickly, thanks to a scalable cloud-native architecture and intuitive policy controls. CSE integrates with existing identity providers and security tools and comes with built-in two-factor authentication. Centralized dashboards make it easier to manage users, configure access, and onboard new employees with minimal disruption. Having a unified platform like Cloud Secure Edge—which includes Secure Web Gateway, CASB, and ZTNA capabilities—also helps simplify the process and accelerate time-to-value.
For a company already invested in SonicWall Gen 7 firewalls, what is the specific “on-ramp” to Cloud Secure Edge, and how do these cloud-native capabilities integrate with their existing hardware?
Yuvraj Pradhan: For customers using our Gen 7 or higher firewalls who are looking to combine Zero Trust with firewall protection, SonicWall is embedding a “Private Connector” into our Next-Gen Firewalls (NGFW). This strengthens existing multi-layer security with a Zero Trust architecture, providing unprecedented ease of deployment while leveraging existing infrastructure. This means SonicWall customers can utilize CSE Connector integration within their firewalls starting with SonicOS 7.1.2. This enables Zero Trust Network Access (ZTNA), allowing employees to securely access authorized applications from anywhere on any device without dealing with repetitive and complex VPN and access policy configurations.
How bullish are you on the Indian market when it comes to new products in cloud solutions?
Yuvraj Pradhan: We are extremely bullish, as India is experiencing a unique convergence of factors: massive digitalization, cloud adoption, rapid SaaS growth, and increasing regulatory focus on data protection. This makes Cloud Secure Edge not just relevant, but essential, and this is reflected in the growth of our cloud security revenue. What is particularly encouraging is that most organizations have either already adopted the cloud or are currently on that journey.