Vendors tackle high-speed security threats

McAfee, TippingPoint and Crossbeam/IBM ready 10Gbit/s protection

Three leading security vendors are set to launch new products designed to secure advanced, high-speed enterprise networks.

McAfee, TippingPoint and Crossbeam have all unveiled systems aimed at securing 10Gbit/s networks, which they claim present new challenges for hard-pressed IT security professionals.

McAfee has released its Total Protection for Network suite, an amalgam of its M-8000 Network Security Platform, previously known as IntruShield, and new hardware announced today called the McAfee Content Security Blade.

Total Protection for Network alleviates the difficulty and expense of securing high-speed networks with point products, such as intrusion protection systems (IPS), anti-spam protection, URL filtering and network behavioural detection, said Christopher Bolin, chief technology officer for McAfee.

"Our customers tell us they are frustrated with managing so many point products, while the costs of doing so continues to mount," he said in a statement.

Total Protection for Network runs on a blade server and features a built-in resource manager, as well as built-in failover and redundancy, which McAfee say removes the need for an external load balancer. The Content Security Blade Server uses HP BladeSystem c-Class system hardware. A major focus of the system is its ability to perform as an IPS protecting corporate networks running at speeds of 10Gbit/s.

Meanwhile, rival IPS vendor TippingPoint has started shipping its Core Controller to UK customers.

Core Controller is a network-based appliance capable of inspecting bi-directional traffic at 10Gbit/s speeds.

"With the mainstream proliferation of 10 Gigabit Ethernet networks, traditional security products can no longer perform at the capacity and speed required for business continuity and compliance," said Marc Willebeek-LeMair, chief technology officer, TippingPoint in a statement.

Elsewhere, IPS vendor Crossbeam Systems unveiled a partnership with technology titan IBM, which will see the release of an integrated 'virtualised' version of the IBM Proventia Network IPS system, running on Crossbeam's X-Series IPS platform. The Proventia IPS platform was acquired after IBM bought Internet Security Systems in 2006.

The new system should allow both carriers and large enterprises to run thousands of 'virtual' instances of the Proventia IPS on Crossbeam's hardware. This would allow carriers to offer 'security as a service', to large enterprises, as it would be able to deal with enterprise 10Gbit/s networks. Large enterprises could also deploy the system themselves.