Blue Coat Systems, Inc. (Nasdaq: BCSI), the technology leader in Application Delivery Networking, today announced that it is expanding its hybrid Secure Web Gateway solution with new Blue Coat® ProxySG® Series and ProxyAV™ Series appliances, new cloud-based defenses in the Blue Coat WebPulse™ service and extended remote user protection through Blue Coat ProxyClient™ software. These new additions include:
-Blue Coat ProxySG 9000 Series appliances that set a new industry standard for performance
-Blue Coat ProxyAV 1400 and 2400 Series appliances for high performance inline malware scanning
-Enhanced security checks for Web-based threats in the ProxySG family of appliances
-Extensible custom filtering for Blue Coat ProxyClient software
-Additional defenses against Web-based threats added to the Blue Coat WebPulse cloud service
The Blue Coat Secure Web Gateway solution is a scalable, hybrid architecture that combines ProxySG and ProxyAV appliances with ProxyClient software and the cloud-based WebPulse service to provide Web awareness and on-demand intelligence about the latest Web threats across the extended enterprise at a lower total cost of ownership.
Throughput and Performance Scalability without Compromise
The new Blue Coat ProxySG 9000 and ProxyAV 1400 and 2400 appliances connect to the WebPulse collaborative cloud defense service to obtain threat intelligence and Web awareness. Innovations in design and processing for the new ProxySG appliances result in a 5X performance improvement over existing appliances. Additionally, the ProxySG 9000 appliances support a full Gigabit per second of throughput when deployed in high availability configurations, setting a new industry performance standard for gateway appliances. With these advances, the ProxySG and ProxyAV appliances can each scale to support enterprises with 250 to 60,000 users on a single appliance.
Blue Coat has also significantly advanced the threat analysis capabilities in its Secure Gateway Operating System (SGOS) version 5.5, boosting performance by 40 percent across the entire family of ProxySG and ProxyAV appliances and enabling in-depth scanning of suspicious attachments, including compressed files, without compromising performance.
Extensible Management Simplifies Policy Control and Reporting
The Blue Coat Secure Web Gateway solution provides the industry’s only centralized device, license and policy management, simplifying the creation and administration of global IT security policies across the extended enterprise. Security administrators can easily replicate and export policies through the intuitive visual policy manager in Blue Coat Director and make policy changes across the extended enterprise through secure remote access to the management console.
With the addition of identity-based filtering to ProxyClient, the Blue Coat security and application acceleration client software, security administrators can set, enforce and report on unique policies for remote users. This extension of custom filtering policies to remote users delivers protection against Web-based threats and enables compliance, reporting and visibility across the enterprise.
Cloud-Based Defense Eliminates Intrusive Upgrade Cycles
To enable enterprises to keep pace with today’s continually evolving Web-based threat landscape, Blue Coat has added new defenses and enhancements into the WebPulse service, including custom script analyzers, sandboxing, third party feeds, machine analysis and web correlation tools that provide security intelligence for human raters to validate new Web threats and content. With these new defenses, Blue Coat combines industry-leading Web intelligence and expertise with advanced malware detection technologies to identify Web 2.0 threats that utilize dynamic link chains across multiple Websites to evade detection.
WebPulse dynamically analyzes real-time URL requests and immediately shares threat intelligence with more than 62 million users worldwide. With these new additions, WebPulse now utilizes 16 advanced threat analysis technologies to provide continuous protection against Web-based threats. The hybrid architecture of the Blue Coat Secure Web Gateway solution is designed to seamlessly deliver the latest advances in protection without requiring incremental investment at the corporate gateway, software downloads or other update cycles.
Advanced Security Framework at Lower Total Cost of Ownership
The Blue Coat Secure Web Gateway architecture delivers innovations in design, power, scalable defenses and extended service and support to provide customers with long-term protection for their Blue Coat investments and lower operational costs.
“With a collaborative and scalable cloud-based service to deliver on-demand security intelligence, the Blue Coat Secure Web Gateway solution continuously adapts to the dynamic Web-based threat landscape that is challenging legacy security architectures,” said Mr. Nidal Taha, Regional Director, Blue Coat Systems Middle East. “By combining a high-performance Internet gateway appliance with remote user protection and a collaborative cloud environment in a hybrid architecture, Blue Coat provides enterprises with a security foundation that is built to last.”
Blue Coat ProxySG appliances now support up to 60,000 users in a single appliance, reducing required rack space by as much as 30 percent versus competitive offerings. For example, four Blue Coat ProxySG 9000 appliances can support 240,000 concurrent users while a comparable competitive configuration can require more than 90 appliances. The resulting reduction in required rack space for the ProxySG appliances can save enterprises as much as $32,000 per month.
To further reduce operating costs, the Blue Coat ProxySG 9000 appliances feature design-for-the-environment innovations. More efficient power supplies reduce power consumption per Gigabit by 33 percent. Additionally, sensor-controlled variable fans automatically respond to changing appliance temperatures, reducing fan speeds and conserving power when the appliance is not operating at capacity.
The Blue Coat Secure Web Gateway solution extends protection to remote users and provides access to the scalable defenses of WebPulse at no additional cost, enabling enterprises to bolster their Web defenses without recurring annual licensing fees. In addition, Blue Coat is extending the terms of its service contracts for the new ProxySG and ProxyAV appliances to include four and five year options, providing long-term protection of its customers’ investments.
