|
 |
|
General Information
|
Add To My Personal Library |
January 4, 2008
• Vol.30 Issue 1
Page(s) 8 in print issue
|
Keep Your Eye On These Security Manufacturers
Vendors Offer Products & Services Of Special Interest To SMEs
|
 In computer technology, security is both a buzzword and an important topic that affects us all. As a buzzword, it denotes the fact that products tend to come and go, and strategies seem to change like the wind. For a small to medium-sized enterprise, security also presents a distinct challenge. It requires a focused effort to cover all points of contact with data, from Gigabit connections in a remote office to mobile devices that can tap into financial data over Wi-Fi. Even though a multifaceted approach is required to dissuade employees from breaking protocols and to stop hackers, it’s also easy to get inundated by companies that offer the security solution du jour. Smaller companies lack the resources to investigate every new service and product, but these three companies offer something unique.
 TriGeo
To an SME data center administrator, security products can require your full attention. Unfortunately, there’s also the network, application servers, data center cooling issues, and any number of new technologies (such as VoIP) to manage. TriGeo (www.trigeo.com) has distinctly positioned itself to support the SME market, as opposed to an enterprise product that has been stripped down with fewer features. The TriGeo SIM (Security Information Manager) appliance requires no intervention at all from the data center administrator: It configures and tunes itself. The company also offers fixed management and support, plus a network security and management system that they describe as another member of the team.
“TriGeo has the unique ability to actively defend the network with hundreds of highly targeted correlation rules and active responses that include functionality to quarantine, block, route, and control services, processes, accounts, and privileges,” says Michael Maloof, TriGeo’s CTO. “The TriGeo SIM combines real-time log management, event correlation, USB detection, and prevention with its unique active response capabilities.”
TriGeo was founded in 2001 based on security research by Dr. Deborah Frincke. Key products include TriGeo InDepth, a log management utility that adds the ability to manage and respond to suspicious activity, and TriGeo InSight, a network analysis tool that lets admins review and investigate unusual network configurations, suspicious activity on the network, and strange usage patterns.
Bluesocket
The security landscape has changed dramatically in the past nine years. Bluesocket (www.bluesocket.com), which started in 1999 before wireless networks were really on the SME landscape, was one of the first companies with a product specifically designed to protect corporate WLAN gateways in an open, multivendor environment. Once a company that made only hardwired security products, the core offerings have since evolved into enterprise mobility tools, WLAN management software, and VoIP monitoring agents. The company was first to market with 802.11 secure gateway and the first policy-based WLAN monitor.
"We are the first company to deliver an enterprise communication solution that unifies secure wireless LAN and SIP-based enterprise Voice over IP," says Ken Lynch, director of product marketing. “Additionally, Bluesocket’s WLAN architecture uniquely provides customers with the ability to dramatically reduce the cost of deploying and operating large-scale Wi-Fi networks while providing wired-equivalent performance for wireless users, with seamless roaming and enterprise-class security and policy management. Bluesocket is unique in its ability to deliver the SMB market segment with an enterprise communication solution that unifies secure wireless LAN and SIP-based enterprise VoIP.”
One of the key benefits to the SME market is scalability. Bluesocket products have “enterprise-like” features that support multiple access points from multiple vendors, QoS for applications, and open standards and yet are priced in bundles with or without voice products and are easy to scale as a company grows. As a result, SMEs aren’t being stagnated with a product that only supports a set number of vendors. The VoIP products actually come from last year’s acquisition of Pingtel, an SIP-based enterprise management communication product suite.
Computer Resource Center
Disaster planning is the famously underrated, and sometimes overlooked, step in the security infrastructure. When a new product emerges for protecting data access points or monitoring instant messaging chat sessions, IT flocks to it as the latest and greatest invention. Yet, disaster recovery is a more general infrastructure security step that some companies only revisit on a yearly basis (or less). With CRC (www.crcdataprotection.com), disaster recovery becomes a more vibrant, constantly evolving activity. The company essentially provides a hosted solution for disaster recovery and secure data archiving. Interestingly, the company learned about data security redundancy through other parts of its business. For example, by maintaining its SaaS (software as a service) and ASP (application service provider) products, the company found data redundancy and protection was a primary concern for SME customers, so CRC parlayed that into a primary business offering.
The data protection services start at about $150 per month, at an average of about $4 per compressed gigabyte per month. CRC partners with Asigra for software and as its main product offers Asigra Televaulting, which is housed in SAS 7-Type II data centers using AES 256 data encryption. The product meets the criteria of many SMEs: lower complexity, better compliance, and a lower cost.
“So many companies are still using tape, and when they take a look at our services, they often realize that they are not as protected as they may think,” says Robert Gerace, CEO at CRC. “Since our software—Asigra Televaulting—supports hot backup of Exchange, SQL, SharePoint, Domino, DB2, and Oracle, and because we have the expertise in house to back up, restore, and tune those server applications, we are a great match for the midlevel market.” 
by John Brandon
Great Potential
Hackers routinely try to break into corporate sites, a fact that is vividly clear if you use AppliCure Technologies’ dotDefender Monitor (applicure.com). The monitoring agent scans your corporate site and looks for intrusions. When hackers do compromise a Web site, it can give them access to internal networks and, most importantly, applications running inside the company on that server.
The company’s DotDefender is a software-based Web application firewall that protects not only servers and dotcom sites but the applications running on the server, as well. It protects against SQL injection, site defacement, cross-site scripting, and other common attacks.
“We look at the problem of Web application security from the perspective of hackers—who are by nature extremely innovative—and our goal is to make great security extremely easy to obtain and use for customers,” says Carl Hartman, the director of North American operations. “AppliCure’s dotDefender is a low TCO (Total Cost of Ownership), high ROI (Return on Investment) solution that offers great protection. It’s easy to use, quickly deployed, and priced right for the midmarket.” |
|
|
