Citing recently reported cyber-attacks in the Philippines, WatchGuard Technologies Asia Pacific Vice President Scott Robertson expressed that there is a greater need to adapt consolidated network security technologies to counter increasing blended threats, and that WatchGuard’s family of Smart Firewalls are shoe-fit for the country’s network security needs, particularly with the launch of its new products that address enterprise and wireless security demands.
WatchGuard adds seven new models to its line of Extensible Threat Management (XTM) products. The new enterprise-class XTM products—primarily suited to headquarters, data centers and managed security services—are the 1520, 1525, 2520 models. WatchGuard also provides small and medium-sized businesses with the XTM 800 series of products.
These new XTM models, as WatchGuard claims, are the fastest one-rack-unit next-generation firewalls for enterprise network and data centers. The XTM 2520, for instance, operates at a firewall throughput of 35Gbps and up t 15Gbps of IPS.
Features include dynamic routing, wide area network (WAN) failover, server load balancing, and link aggregation. The new products also carry Fireware XTM 11.7, which enhances URL filtering database from Websense, WatchGuard’s strategic partner, Android and iOS VPN applications, and support for IPv6 and L2TP VPN. They are also equipped with RapidDeploy, WatchGuard’s configuration utility, to allow customers to preconfigure XTM devices for branch offices, eliminating the need for their IT security professionals to actually be at the deployment site for installation. Policy grouping, which allows administrators to create custom tags and filters for firewall policies to further simplify management and maintenance in larger environments, has also been added.
Additionally, the new WatchGuard XTM 800, 1500, and 2500 series appliances pack the latest Intel Xeon multi-core processors and QuickAssist technologies to achieve topnotch performance in speed and security.
WatchGuard also extends its enterprise-strength network security services to wireless networks with the launch of its two new wireless access points aimed at protecting mobile devices connected to wireless networks of enterprises and small-to-medium businesses.
With the new wireless access points—the AP100 (USD 400) and the AP200 (USD 525)—WatchGuard customers can apply XTM security features such as IPS, application control, WebBlocker, and spamBlocker, to WLAN traffic.
When asked whether the new wireless access points can also be used to support the security of public wireless networks used by shopping malls—a widespread development in the Philippines—Robertson remarked that he sees providing malls, as well as their customers, with better wireless network security as an area of interest and opportunity for WatchGuard.
“What we’re offering is also a solution for shopping malls, large department stores, large convenient stores, and other similar businesses,” said Robertson. “When connecting to the wireless network of a shopping mall, you need to know that your mobile device isn’t downloading viruses that will then go attacking someone else’s device. You need to be assured that whatever you’re connecting to is not malicious or has harmful content.”
“It’s not really specific to the size of the organization,” Robertson explained. “Almost all businesses today have a need for wireless connectivity, whether it be for their own internal stuff or even for guests coming into the reception area who want to get wireless access. It doesn’t need to be an enterprise, despite them having a greater need for it. Our solutions suit other businesses as well. “
Robertson claims that one of the benefits of using consolidated security systems for businesses in the Philippines—apart from being protected by a higher level of security—is having lower cost in terms of hardware, OS licensing, maintenance and training.
WatchGuard is distributed by Transition Systems Philippines Pte Ltd, Inc. (TSPI).