SonicWall has announced its participation as a founding Trusted Access for Cyber (TAC) partner in OpenAI’s Daybreak Cyber Partner Program, aiming to bring GPT-5.6 Sol-powered AI cybersecurity capabilities to mid-market and small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) through its global channel partner network.
The cybersecurity vendor said the initiative is designed to extend advanced AI-assisted cyber defence capabilities beyond large enterprises, enabling smaller organisations to access enterprise-grade security technologies without the need for dedicated security teams or significant infrastructure investments.
According to SonicWall, cyber attackers are increasingly using AI to automate and accelerate attacks, creating challenges for smaller businesses that often lack the resources available to large enterprises. Through the Daybreak Cyber Partner Program, the company plans to integrate OpenAI’s GPT-5.6 Sol into its cybersecurity platform to improve threat detection, policy management and incident response.
“SonicWall has spent three decades on a single conviction: that mid-market and SMB organisations deserve the same quality of protection as the Fortune 500, without the complexity, the headcount, or the cost,” said Paul Ilse, CEO of SonicWall. “Joining OpenAI Daybreak as a founding TAC partner is a direct extension of that conviction. A 200-person company running SonicWall should have access to the same quality of AI-assisted defence that a large enterprise can build with a full security team and an unlimited budget.”
The company plans to deploy GPT-5.6 Sol across its defensive security workflows, where the AI model will assist with policy management, threat triage and remediation guidance. These capabilities will be embedded within the workflows already used by managed service providers (MSPs) and managed security service providers (MSSPs), allowing customers to adopt AI-enhanced security without replacing their existing infrastructure.
SonicWall said its 100% channel-driven business model, supported by a network of more than 17,000 partners worldwide, enables it to deliver these AI capabilities to organisations that are often underserved by enterprise-focused cybersecurity vendors.
“The asymmetry in this industry has always run in the wrong direction—not just between attackers and defenders,” said Chandro Prasad, Chief Product Officer at SonicWall. “The most advanced protection has consistently reached the largest enterprises first and the businesses that keep the economy running last. Daybreak through SonicWall flips that. This capability should not be reserved for the organisations that can already afford every advantage. We are putting it in reach of the mid-market and SMB, through the partners who already serve them.”
The company said the AI capabilities will be integrated with its Unified Management platform, providing customers with AI-assisted security operations focused on outcomes such as breach prevention, risk reduction and operational continuity rather than standalone AI features.