Digex, Inc. , the Laurel, Md.-based managed hosting provider for business, today announced it is expanding its managed security products by introducing a new high-speed firewall offering.
This new firewall appliance is designed to provide Digex clients with a reliable security infrastructure, while managing large volumes of business transactions.
According to Digex, the addition of the high-speed firewall service to its managed security suite addresses the expanding security needs of enterprise clients as recent research from Datamonitor says the market for firewall technology in the US alone is expected to increase by 27 percent over the next four years.
“As more and more enterprise organizations use the Internet for mission critical applications, there is a high demand for the very highest levels of security,” says Martha Gilbertson, vice president of product management at Digex.
“Firewalls are an important means for ensuring the confidentiality and integrity of sensitive data without compromising the necessary speed to support our clients’ increasing site traffic,” she explains.
The Digex high-speed firewall offering is built on the Nokia IP740, a Nokia Internet security appliance, and is tightly integrated with Check Point Software Technologies FireWall-1 software.
Digex says the new high-speed firewall offering accommodates rapid network growth, and is compatible with other third-party software applications such as intrusion detection and anti-virus, allowing for future expansion and integration of security services
In addition, a feature called Firewall Flows, which moves the Stateful Inspection process to the hardware level, is said to significantly reduce the CPU needs of the firewall to help increase performance.
Apparel retailer J.Crew, is using the Digex high-speed firewall offering to secure its online store. “Up to 15 per cent of our top line revenue is driven by jcrew.com and we cannot afford any breach in security,” says Paul G. Fusco, senior vice president and CIO, J.Crew.
“The Digex high-speed firewall service allows us to concentrate on what we do best by securely and efficiently guarding our e-business initiatives.”
Like other Digex products and services, the new high-speed firewall is available to all managed hosting and application customers served by WorldCom through the WorldCom-Digex affiliation.