WatchGuard Previews New High Performance Network Security Appliance for Enterprise Networks

[Snake08]

WatchGuard® Technologies, a global leader in extensible network security and connectivity solutions, today unveiled a preview of its first extensible threat management (XTM) network security appliance, the WatchGuard XTM 1050.

Designed for enterprise campuses, data centers and other high-performance network environments, the WatchGuard XTM 1050 sets a new standard for high security and high performance by achieving 10Gbps firewall and 2Gbps IPSec throughput through dual quad-core Intel processors and advanced crypto-acceleration hardware. Coupled with raw power and performance, the WatchGuard XTM 1050 also incorporates cornerstone elements of WatchGuard’s XTM vision, including uncompromising security, extensible networking and management features, and unparalleled ownership properties.

“Network threats are evolving and becoming more sophisticated, which has a deleterious effect to businesses and consumers,” said Eric Aarrestad, vice president of marketing at WatchGuard Technologies. “By making network security extensible, WatchGuard takes an unequaled position in the industry. The XTM 1050 embodies our vision of bringing extensible protection and networking in one high-performance, easy to manage and easy to own appliance.”

[Shen]

Leading with Extensible Protection

WatchGuard, the pioneer of deep packet inspection firewalls coupled with application proxy technologies, innovates again with the XTM 1050 by including two new high security features: HTTPS inspection and VoIP security.

Although the “S” in HTTPS stands for secure, it also means to network administrators that HTTPS packets are virtually invisible to inspection, which opens networks to potential “drive-by downloads,” or other malicious applications. With WatchGuard’s full HTTPS proxy technology in the XTM 1050, no longer is HTTPS a risk waiting to be exploited.

Likewise, WatchGuard recognizes that as more enterprise and mid-market businesses adopt VoIP, they open themselves to exploits. By utilizing a host of high security technologies, including network address translation, port obfuscation, and SIP and H.323 proxies, the WatchGuard XTM 1050 becomes an ideal security appliance to thwart would-be VoIP systems and network hackers.

Like all other WatchGuard network security appliances, the XTM 1050 will sport optional security service subscriptions, including WatchGuard SpamBlocker with virus outbreak detection, WatchGuard Web for URL and content filtering and WatchGuard Gateway Anti-Virus and IMPS/IDS. As well, all WatchGuard security appliances come with LiveSecurity Service, which provides free software updates, expert support and breaking security alerts.


Providing Extensible Networking Functionality

The WatchGuard XTM 1050 integrates 12 line-speed, high density Gigabit Ethernet ports with the option to upgrade 4 ports to fiber. Adding to this multi-port design, WatchGuard unveils several firsts for a device of this class. This includes active-active multi-WAN load balancing to achieve high availability (HA), and the ability to cluster two WatchGuard XTM 1050 appliances as a single, logical unit, thus achieving nearly 2X throughput. As well, the XTM 1050 includes WAN and VPN failover with dynamic routing and traffic shaping capabilities to provide maximum network performance and redundancy for the most demanding environments.

Physically, WatchGuard beefs up the hardware components of its XTM 1050 line by including a bevy of enterprise-level features, such as dual hot-swappable power supplies and fans. This further adds to the systems’ reliability, uptime, ease of service and investment protection.


Giving Admins Greater Control with Extensible Management

With WatchGuard’s free WatchGuard Systems Manager, administrators gain new insight to user activities and network traffic. Adding to this, for the first time WatchGuard is including a scriptable command line interface (CLI) option with its popular and intuitive management GUI. With a scriptable CLI, administrators will be able to easily manage multiple appliances and create custom management security scripts to make policy enforcement easier and management simpler. As well, the XTM 1050 will include roll-based access control (RBAC) so that administrators can delegate custom management functions while achieving more granular control.

With its easy drag-and-drop VPN tool, administrators will have no trouble in setting up branch office VPNs, and with its centralized policy and VPN management, administrators will be able to uniformly enforce security policies across multiple locations and among multiple users.

[Steve123]

WatchGuard XTM 1050 Pricing & Availability

The WatchGuard XTM 1050 will be available in Q4, 2008. Pricing will be announced upon availability. For more information, please go to: www.watchguard.com

[Snake08]

Since 1996, WatchGuard® Technologies, Inc. has been the advanced technology leader of network security solutions, providing mission-critical security to hundreds of thousands of businesses worldwide. The WatchGuard family of wired and wireless unified threat management appliances and WatchGuard SSL VPN remote access solutions provide extensible network security, unparalleled network visibility, management and control. WatchGuard products are backed by WatchGuard LiveSecurity® Service, an innovative support, maintenance, and education program. WatchGuard is headquartered in Seattle and has offices serving North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, and Latin America. To learn more, visit http://www.watchguard.com/.