WatchGuard brings firewalls for mid-size enterprises

WASHINGTON, USA: WatchGuard Technologies, a provider in multi-function firewalls, has announced next-generation firewall (NGFW) and unified threat management (UTM) appliances specifically engineered for mid-size and distributed enterprises.

The WatchGuard Firebox M400 and M500 appliances, based on the latest Intel Pentium and Intel Celeron Processors, ensures enterprises never have to compromise network security for performance.

"The demands facing mid-size and distributed enterprise networks in India are the same as those faced by large enterprise networks just a few years ago," said Scott Robertson, vice president APAC & Japan for WatchGuard Technologies.

"With the growth in encrypted traffic, combined with Internet traffic increasing at 21 percent and connection speeds climbing at 42 percent, businesses are demanding firewalls that can keep pace. Our customers do not want to be forced to choose between protecting their networks and ensuring their end-users have the performance needed to do their jobs and with our new Firebox solutions, they don't have to."

All WatchGuard NGFW and UTM appliances run on WatchGuard's Fireware OS, allowing WatchGuard's firewall performance to continually scale.

Steve Price, general manager of Intel's Communications Infrastructure Division, said: "WatchGuard Firebox M400 and M500 appliances that utilize the latest generation of Intel Core Processors for inspecting network traffic take advantage of new Intel QuickAssist technology, which instantly provides a performance boost. Customers now have the ability to run their security systems at full throttle without sacrificing performance."

The WatchGuard Firebox M400 and M500 also provide the flexibility of two SFP (small form-factor pluggable) ports that can feature either 1 Gb copper or 1 Gb fiber connections, ensuring that firewalls can adapt to end-user environments.

SFP transceivers are available as optional accessories. Both models feature the WatchGuard Fireware OS, v.11.9.4. This software version includes new features to simplify deep inspection of HTTPS traffic, allowing users to include names instead of numbers in their policy definitions.