Crossbeam Systems Inc. announced the availability of its next-generation X-Series line of security service switches. The new X-Series - featuring an architectural refresh of core network and security service processing capabilities - is the only solution to provide an open and extensible platform, purpose built for security, upon which best-in-class, certified interoperable applications can be integrated and exchanged as needed to respond to new and evolving threats.

    As companies begin to deploy their 10 Gigabit Ethernet (GE) enabled, next-generation security services layer - one that takes into account the high volume of voice, video, data and wireless content traveling over converging networks - they need a solid security architecture that can support critical requirements for performance, availability and security that go far beyond what is available today. Additionally, security functions are increasingly becoming outsourced through new "in-the-cloud" services, helping enterprises to offload management of basic security functions and focus more on protecting core assets.

    The X-Series will also serve as the foundation for a number of groundbreaking security advances to be introduced over the next year that will enable a new level of "inter-application intelligence" -- boldly setting the stage for how security will be deployed on large networks over the next five to 10 years.

    The new X-Series couples the consolidation benefits of Crossbeam UTM with unprecedented levels of scale, performance and virtualization to support next-generation requirements. This intelligence will enable applications to communicate with each other and with the network through the X-Series platform - part of Crossbeam's long-term strategy to address growing demands around content security.

    "The next generation of the X-Series builds on Crossbeam's market-leading UTM platform with radical improvements in performance, intelligence and programmability that are simply unrivaled in the marketplace. It is a major leap ahead in terms of how we will be able to balance security measures with the demanding needs of our dynamic business," said Wayne Sowery, enterprise security architect at Centrica plc, a global energy company.

    "Today's large enterprise and service providers have reached an impasse; the need to continually add security functionality to the network has resulted in massive appliance sprawl that is costly and unmanageable and degrades performance," said Christofer Hoff, chief security strategist at Crossbeam Systems. "Companies simply don't know what they'll need to mitigate the next threat. The X-Series solves this by providing an intelligent architecture upon which best-of-breed security applications can be easily integrated and scaled on the network, when and how the customer needs them."

    The new X-Series will be a key enabler for this best-of-breed ecosystem, offering true carrier-class availability and superior performance while running multiple best-in-class security applications from leading vendors. This gives organizations a safer, simpler solution for network security, resulting in operational and capital efficiencies not achievable with disparate products. The X-Series provides massive appliance consolidation that eliminates up to 100 separate devices per Crossbeam security switch, allowing customers to manage far fewer systems and licenses to achieve tighter, more flexible security.

    "Protecting large networks poses an entirely different set of challenges than small-to-medium sized businesses," said Eric Ogren, president and founder of The Ogren Group. "Only a focused network security vendor can meet the extreme performance and security demands of large complex networks. The ability to deploy a virtualized security services layer is critical for customers requiring highly scalable performance, while maintaining flexibility of choice in security applications."


    Features include:
    - Extreme performance - Provides five times the performance over traditional appliances available today, enabling multiple applications to run simultaneously at up to 40 Gbps throughput in a single chassis, including firewall, IPS and anti-virus applications. This allows customers to apply any combination of their best-of-breed security applications on the X-Series with the assurance that they will have more than enough processing capacity. It also helps customers avoid the classic weaknesses of old-style multi-function boxes, where the performance of one application comes at the cost of others.

    - Fully 10 GE enabled - With the ability to support up to four NPM-8600 network processor modules per X-Series chassis, this architecture can provide up to 8 10 GE ports and 40 1 GE ports to satisfy the most demanding connectivity requirements for next generation networks.

    - Application serialization - Enables operators to manage how the data flows from ingress through various best-of-breed applications, one after the other, until egress. This unique technology enables custom flow management and can also actively manage transitions between Layer 2 and Layer 3 applications. This enables customers to easily manage a best-of-breed security environment in the complex layers of their network, without worrying about appliance sprawl.

    - Flexible, scalable platform - Hardware architecture consists of the chassis (X40, X45, X80) and three hardened components -- Network Processor Module (NPM-8600), Control Processor Module (CPM-8600), and Application Processor Module (APM-8600). The new X-Series provides the only platform that virtualizes the complex network environment within a single chassis, enabling companies to insert, exchange and interoperate applications in a very dynamic and flexible way -- something that no other vendor can offer.
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