SAN JOSE – Check Point has announced its latest security gateway and management solution based on the company’s new “Software Blade” architecture that offers businesses a common platform to deploy a library of more than 20 interoperable security applications or “software blades” such as firewall, virtual private network (VPN), intrusion prevention systems (IPS), anti-virus, policy management or provisioning.
Customers can select the exact security software blades they need and then combine them into a single, centrally-managed gateway.
“A software blade is an independent, modular and centrally managed layer of security,” explained Darrell Burkey, Director, IPS Products, Check Point. “If you think of hardware blades with their flexibility — the ability to swap a blade in, pull a blade out, and add blades to the chassis – it’s exactly the same concept, only with software on an existing Check Point Security gateway.”
With the new Software Blade architecture customers will be able to move functionality from one system to another, consolidate or split functionalities between systems and guarantee performance for each software blades by setting usage thresholds. All these capabilities will enable customers to scale their security needs while reducing security cost of ownership.
For example, a business could start with a single core, single blade firewall system. That business can turn on functionalities such as VPN, network anti-virus, VoIP security and intrusion prevention by adding four blades turning their system into a five blade system. To meet their performance needs the system can be upgraded into a two, four or eight core computing system, enabling multi-gigabit performance with the extended functionality.
Key benefits of the Check Point Software Blade Architecture include:
Flexibility Provides the right level of protection at the right level of investment
Manageability Enables fast deployment of security functions and increased productivity through central management of software blades
Total Security Provides the right level of security, at all enforcement points, and at all layers of the network
Guaranteed performance Enables performance setting per blade to ensure guaranteed performance
Lower TCO – Protects investment by enabling consolidation and leveraging existing infrastructure
“IDC expects the next generation of security products to offer more flexibility in both features and deployment options, a trend that is accelerated by the current state of the economy and the demand for more cost-effective solutions,” said Andrew Hanson, Network and Endpoint Security Analyst at IDC. “Check Point’s new Software Blade architecture offers customers important flexibility and customization options to deliver security tailored to each enterprise’s specific environment.”
“Software Blades’ modular approach can also supply cost saving benefits as they can be deployed dynamically without the need to upgrade hardware, firmware or drivers,” Hanson added.
Check Point also announced Check Point R70, a new version of its security gateway and management solution based on the new Software Blade architecture.
As part of R70, Check Point is also introducing a new IPS software blade. This IPS technology can be deployed on any R70 gateway.
Check Point R70 features and benefits include:
Extensible Software Blade architecture allows for quick additions of security functionality to existing security solution, reducing deployment costs while increasing security effectiveness
New IPS software blade provides complete threat coverage for client, server and OS vulnerabilities, malware/worm infections, and more and enables up to 10Gbps total system performance of Firewall with integrated IPS on today’s existing hardware configurations
New IPS event analysis software blade includes Timeline View, Multi-dimensional sorting and confidence indexing to allow customers to focus on critical data in real-time and to quickly drill down from business view to forensics level
Provisioning management software blade provides centralized administration and provisioning of Check Point security devices via a single management console for fast deployment
“Check Point R70 brings to customers a new approach to deploying network security, one that is flexible and extensible,” said Paul Comessotti, Check Point’s Canadian Country Manager. “With this new release, customers can benefit from the flexibility of the new software blade architecture. In addition, R70’s ground breaking intrusion prevention blade allows customers to deploy preemptive and accurate protections to security gateways with deep granularity, unparalleled threat control and the highest levels of performance.”
This column was written by Erin Bell of ConnectIT, an IntegratedMarCompany
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