Stonesoft started as a systems integrator in the Nordic regions of Europe. In 1994 it introduced StoneBeat, a technology for creating a high availability pair of firewalls in an active-passive configuration. In 1999, the company extended StoneBeat with a patented load balancing clustering technology,[8] launching StoneBeat FullCluster. It was one of the first technologies certified in Check Point's OPSEC program.[9]
In 2001, Stonesoft expanded its product set into the firewall/VPN space, becoming a direct competitor to Check Point. The StoneGate Firewall/VPN was launched on March 19, 2001. In January 2003, the company introduced the first virtual firewall/VPN solution, for IBM mainframes.[10]
In 2010, the company released information via CERT-FI[11] on Advanced Evasion technique (AETs) that met with skepticism in the community. Further AETs were released in 2011, and eventually verified by independent labs and researchers.[12][13][14]
In 2012 “Stonesoft” replaced the “StoneGate” product name. From now on, Stonesoft is used both as the company and product name.
Stonesoft Corporation’s product sales for Q3 2012 were circa 5.6 million euros. The product sales grew by approximately 18%. The Q3 net sales were approximately 9.2–9.3 million euros, which equals a growth by14-16%. The growth was lower than expected.[15]