Cisco Broadens Network Security Solutions

February 14, 2002 -- (WEB HOST INDUSTRY REVIEW) -- Cisco Systems announced yesterday the availability of the PIX 506E and 515E platforms providing enhanced performance for the PIX 506 and 515 Firewall platforms, version 6.2 of the PIX Firewall Operating System, and availability of the SAFE Blueprint for IP telephony. These new enhancements provide customers with network security and VPN performance requirements for converged network deployments.

This announcement further enhances SAFE, Cisco's dynamic blueprint for security and VPN networks. SAFE is based on Cisco AVVID (Architecture for Voice, Video and Integrated Data), enabling businesses to maximize security and e-business opportunities.

The new PIX 506E and 515E Firewall platforms provide customers with enhanced capabilities designed for optimized security and VPN performance. According to Cisco's internal lab tests, the new Cisco PIX 506E and 515E Firewalls feature extra processing power resulting in up to two and a half times increase in firewall throughput.

Cisco also introduced version 6.2 of its PIX Operating System, offering new enhancements for small office/home office and enterprise-size networks, along with new Voice-over-IP and multimedia support.

The PIX OS version 6.2 enables scalable VPN deployments and, with new features such as PPP over Ethernet (PPPoE) protocol, improved ISP compatibility in SOHO networks. PIX firewalls may now act as hardware-based VPN clients, simplifying the management of large-scale VPN deployments for small and remote office environments. Utilizing the same unified VPN client framework capabilities found in other Cisco VPN solutions, PIX Firewalls dynamically download policies as VPN tunnels are established, ensuring up-to-date remote access security policy deployment.

PIX OS version 6.2 also offers new enhancements for enterprise-scale firewall deployments. To ease integration of existing networks, bi-directional, or dual Network Address Translation simplifies the integration of two existing networks that use overlapping IP address spaces. New LAN-based failover functionality extends the PIX Firewall's resiliency support, providing non-disruptive failover capabilities, while overcoming the distance limitations of other firewall solutions. Support for third party URL filtering services has been extended with support of N2H2, a provider of Internet filtering solutions and a member of the Cisco AVVID Partner Program. PIX administration has also been enhanced through tighter integration with the Cisco Secure Access Control Server (ACS) enabling multiple, customized levels of administrative access. New object grouping features also simplify administration allowing network resources and services to be structured into logical groups thus streamlining network access control policies.

PIX OS version 6.2 also builds upon the base of IP telephony and multimedia services currently delivered in the PIX Firewall Family. New features include Port Address Translation services for Session Initiative Protocol and H.323v2 protocols, and several DHCP options for seamless communication with Cisco IP Phone and Cisco IP SoftPhone product offerings. Stub Multicast Routing support allows customers to take advantage of IP multicast's technology, while securely deploying streaming multimedia applications such as video conferencing and e-learning. In addition, support for popular Internet-ready applications such as Microsoft NetMeeting has been enhanced with support for Internet Locator Service directory.

The Cisco PIX 506E and 515E Firewalls are available today starting at $1,695 and $3,495 USD respectively. The Cisco PIX OS version 6.2 will be available within this quarter, and is free to customers with a current Cisco SMARTnet contract. The SAFE Blueprint for IP telephony is available today for download at cisco.com/go/safe.