Cisco unveils new multi-function appliance family

Cisco Systems, Inc. has announced the availability of the Cisco Adaptive Security Appliance (ASA) 5500 Series, a family of multi-function security appliances that the company claims help stop attacks before they spread through the network. A key component of the recently announced Adaptive Threat Defense phase of the Cisco Self-Defending Network (SDN) security strategy, the Cisco ASA 5500 Series includes the Cisco ASA 5510, Cisco ASA 5520, and Cisco ASA 5540 products.

Enumerating the benefits of the newly launched family, Cisco Systems security group principal consultant Bernard Trudel said, “The Cisco ASA 5500 Series controls network and application traffic, delivers flexible Virtual Private Network (VPN) connectivity, and reduces the overall deployment, operations costs and complexity that would otherwise be associated with this level of comprehensive security.”

“This appliance family is designed to span from small and medium sized businesses to large enterprises, and is purpose built for concurrent services scalability and unified management. This enables high-performance and simultaneous operation of multiple security services without added operational complexity,' he added.

According to the company, these new solutions build upon the depth and breadth of security features found in PIX Security Appliance, IPS 4200 Series and VPN 3000 Concentrator product families. The ASA 5500 Series also offers a set of VPN services that offer remote access IPSec and SSL VPN capabilities as well as Quality of Service (QoS) enabled site-to-site IPSec services. These products are also rich in IP integration, and are designed to deliver QoS, routing, IPv6, and multicast support thus allowing insertion into the network without disrupting legitimate traffic and applications.

The Cisco ASA 5510, ASA 5520, and ASA 5540 is priced starting at $3495, $7995 and $16,995 respectively.