Press Release - For Immediate Release
IronPort Introduces NetCache Trade-in
Created by NetCache Veterans, IronPort S-Series Web Security Appliance Enters Beta
SAN BRUNO, Calif. - June 23, 2006 - IronPort Systems Inc., the leader in gateway security, today announced a special trade-in program for customers of Network Appliance's NetCache product. The credit makes it even easier for enterprise customers to upgrade from web caching appliances to IronPort's new web security appliances. Web caching systems were widely deployed in the late 1990's and early part of 2000. These systems were designed to save bandwidth costs and improve web download performance. With the dramatic increase in availability and decrease in cost of Internet bandwidth in recent years, web caching has become less of an imperative and many vendors that developed web caching systems have exited the market or ceased operations entirely.
A Second Generation of Web Technology
Today, spyware and other threats are flowing into the corporate network via the web. As corporations look for perimeter based solutions to stop this spread, the need for a new generation of perimeter based web technology has emerged. For maximum efficacy, a modern web security appliance needs to examine traffic at both the network layer and the application layer. Furthermore, a web security appliance needs to combine signature based analysis as well as traffic based or "reputation" analysis to distinguish legitimate traffic from hostile spyware or malware. IronPort's new S-Series Web Security Appliance is an example of this new system architecture. Built on IronPort's proprietary AsyncOS operating system, the S-Series appliance offers extremely high performance scanning of web content at both the network layer and the application layer using both signature and reputation based filtering. The IronPort S-Series represents the next generation of web technology, leveraging techniques developed for web proxy caching but built from the ground up for security. The IronPort S-Series Web Security Appliance is currently shipping to customers in beta.
Data Makes the Difference
While server architecture is critical to a security gateway, the heart of any security device lies in the database that distinguishes good traffic from bad. IronPort pioneered the use of a global traffic monitoring network to measure in real time the reputation or trustworthiness of a given server. IronPort's SenderBase Network is the largest and most accurate database in the world. SenderBase collects data from more than 100,000 networks around the globe. SenderBase has data on every active web server and email server on the Internet. This data is used by the IronPort appliance to dynamically apply a scanning policy to identify and stop incoming threats.
The data in SenderBase allows IronPort to stop viruses an average of 14 hours ahead of signature availability from any leading anti-virus vendor. The same data allows the IronPort appliance to increase system throughput by as much as 400% by intelligently applying scanning only to traffic that needs it. Few if any vendors in the world have access to the large database required to yield this type of protection.
Core Team Assembles at IronPort
The IronPort development team has a long history in the web proxy server industry. Nawaf Bitar, SVP of Engineering at IronPort, led the development of the NetCache engineering team starting in early 2000. Bitar is joined at IronPort by other key technical leaders from the web proxy industry, including one the founders of Internet Middleware Corporation (IMC), a pioneer in web proxy development and the company that Network Appliance acquired in 1997 to form the basis of the NetCache product line. Ironport's technical advisory team also includes Dr. Alan Cox at Rice University, a noted expert of web proxy design, and Dr. Peter Danzig, one of the authors of the Harvest Project, the open source web proxy that is widely credited with starting the web cache industry.
Restoring Trust to the Internet
"We came to IronPort for a reason," said Bitar. "We are excited about taking our experience with web server architecture and applying it to a state of the art security system. But what really excites us is the overall mission of IronPort - restoring trust to the Internet experience." Spam, viruses, phishing and spyware have become so rampant that Internet users can no longer easily trust their Internet communications. Spyware is surreptitiously loaded on an end user's machine from sites that pose as everything from elementary school sites to legitimate search engines. IDC estimates that as much as 75% of corporate desktops are infected with spyware. This wide spread propagation of threats is undermining the Internet experience for all users. IronPort's mission is to stop the people who are generating profits from these threats.
About IronPort Systems
IronPort Systems is the leading security gateway provider for organizations ranging from small businesses to the Global 2000. The company has developed a family of security gateway appliances, including the IronPort C-Series™ email security appliance, the IronPort S-Series web security appliance, and the IronPort M-Series security management appliance. All IronPort security gateway appliances offer breakthrough performance, unprecedented ease of use, and reduced total cost of ownership. IronPort is driving new standards and providing innovative products for those faced with the monumental task of managing, protecting, and growing mission-critical email and web systems. For more information on IronPort products and services, visit: http://www.ironport.com/.
Press / Analysts
If you are a reporter or analyst and want more information on IronPort Systems please contact:
David Oro at (415) 885-9898 or dto@theorogroup.com
Suzanne Matik at (831) 479-1888 or smatick@earthlink.com
