Networking & VPN

AdventNet launched the latest iteration of its ManageEngine DeviceExpert, which is the firm's flagship network change and configuration management product. ManageEngine DeviceExpert 5.0 now ships with network compliance monitoring capabilities and a new reporting feature. Other features include the ability to check for compliance to internal/external policies and standards; a newly streamlined user interface; automated compliance status monitoring and reporting; and network inventory, firmware inventory, network health status, configuration changes, user permissions, and network compliance reporting. DeviceExpert also adds support for new vendors, including Juniper, Dell, and Netgear. The Professional Edition annual subscription rates start at $795 for 25 devices.
www.adventnet.com/news/network_change_config_management_solution.html

Enterasys Networks announced Secure Networks for Virtual Data Centers, a hardware and software solution designed for connectivity and compliance in virtualized computing and storage. Secure Networks for Virtual Data Centers offers tools to automatically respond to the dynamic mobility of virtual machines; enforce network access control policies; and comply with internal, industry, or government regulations. The Secure Virtual Data Center features a security-enabled infrastructure of Matrix N-Series flow-based switches and Matrix X-Series high-performance routers, which provide a capacity of 1,000 Gigabit Ethernet or 256 10Gb Ethernet connections per rack. And with Advanced Dragon security applications, the Secure Virtual Data Center provides intrusion detection/prevention, network access control, and security information management to automate compliance audits and reporting.
www.enterasys.com/company/press-release-item.aspx?id=730

Exinda Networks has announced an enhancement to its WAN optimization appliances that helps control a wide range of recreational Internet traffic, including instant messaging, gaming, and downloading entertainment-related files, that can slow business applications on corporate networks. The feature detects, blocks, or slows down encrypted P2P (peer-to-peer) traffic. Exinda says it is the only WAN optimization vendor that detects, classifies, and controls more than 1,000 applications that include encrypted P2P traffic; it can detect, classify, and control 98% of BitTorrent traffic. The company adds that its new feature classifies Skype and BitTorrent traffic using Layer 7 heuristics, while the company’s new heuristics-based classification speeds data at up to 100 times faster than previously. Exinda’s new classification engine will be available free next month to current customers as part of a firmware update.
www.exinda.com/public/news/news_20071120.html

Stonesoft has announced the release of its StoneGate SSL VPN 1.1, a secure VPN product. Compatible with Windows Vista, StoneGate SSL VPN 1.1 is designed for fault-tolerant connectivity and enhanced ease of use and pairs with StoneGate Firewall. If an access point fails, StoneGate SSL VPN 1.1 is designed to automatically find a working one, which also aids in disaster recovery. Sign-on has been revamped with an adaptive, self-configuring setup and username and password access to all functions. The StoneGate SSL VPN 1.1 will be available next month.
www.stonesoft.com/en/press_and_media/releases/en/2007/20112007
.html?uri=/en/press_and_media/releases/en/index.html

Physical Infrastructure

The 6kVA Liebert GXT2 UPS, made expressly for 208V UPS applications, is new from Emerson. The 5U unit can be configured in a rack or as a tower. It can provide double-conversion online protection up to 4,200W. Its user-replaceable batteries provide up to seven minutes of full-load runtime, which can be increased with optional external battery cabinets.
www.gotoemerson.com

Security

Adlink released a new dual GbE PCI-X card that features bypass capabilty, which the company is targeting at content security, firewall, IDS, IPS, UTM, VPN gateway, and other network security appliance applications. The Adlink PCI-8246 card includes an Intel 82546EB dual-port GbE controller that supports full- and half-duplex transfers. It also supports 32- and 64-bit PCI and PCI-X buses at speeds up to 133MHz. The card’s bypass feature relies on a mechanical relay array and a watchdog timer that directly connects the GbE signals on the ports when the system crashes or is powered down. Users can configure the watchdog timer to automatically enable bypass mode during system failures. The card is available in OEM quantities for $190.

In a bid to help organizations that handle cardholder data and other sensitive information, AdventNet introduced an enhanced version of its network security scanner, ManageEngine Security Manager Plus 5. The updated software now supports PCI DSS compliance, which enables users to determine at a glance if the systems are scanning network resources for vulnerabilities, encrypting data transfers, and tracking passwords. ManageEngine Security Manager Plus 5 also works with AdventNet’s EventLog Analyzer system log management tool and the DeviceExpert multivendor network compliance management offering. The Professional Edition annual subscription rates start at $995 for 50 systems.
www.adventnet.com/news/security_manager_support_pci.html

CoSoSys is targeting SOHOs with its updated Secure It Easy 1.2 software. The security software prevents unauthorized portable storage devices, such as flash drives and external hard drives, from copying data that resides on a PC. The software now also has file-tracing functionality that lets it track data recorded to removable devices. Secure It Easy prevents data transfer to (and from) any device that hasn’t been pre-authorized by the computer’s administrator. Because the software also traces the information that is transferred to authorized devices, users have auditable information regarding data transfers from the PC. Secure It Easy supports Windows 2000/XP/Vista and is available in English, German, French, and Romanian interfaces. CoSoSys offers a 30-day trial of Secure It Easy.
www.cososys.com/press_releases_docs/Press_Release_Secure_it_
Easy_Version_1.2_with_File_Tracing_EN.pdf

Global DataGuard launched the Enterprise Unified Threat Manager++ for comprehensive security applications that can be managed from a single console. The security manager is capable of being personalized based on the needs of the user, including network behavior analysis, vulnerability management, global event and threat management, intrusion detection and prevention, firewall and log management, and network access monitoring and control, as well as third-party integration. The Enterprise UTM++ adapts to the system’s information sharing to detect threats and issue alerts among all applications and appliances involved. Enterprise UTM++ is available for $1,000 per month from Global DataGuard.
www.globaldataguard.com/news/pr20071203.php

Servers

Bull released the Escala EL460B, a POWER6 blade server, and AIX 6, an OS that provides virtualization capabilities. The Escala EL460B is a one-slot blade server with two sockets of dual-core, 4GHz POWER6 chips. The POWER6 blade server contains a SAS drive of either 73GB or 146GB, and it can hold up to four memory modules for up to 32GB of RAM. The EL460B comes with an on-board dual Ethernet connection, but Bull also offers 10Gb Ethernet, Fibre Channel, and High-Speed InfiniBand connections through optional mezzanine cards. Version 6 of AIX includes WPARs (Workload Partitions) to help enable advanced virtualization features, such as “cross-node” application mobility. The WPARs also provide a cloning mechanism to simplify the installation process for complete application environments.
www.wcm.bull.com/internet/pr/rend.jsp?DocId=309469&lang=en

Storage

Acronis has released Acronis True Image Echo, which lets users back up and restore physical and virtual servers. True Image Echo runs with all physical or virtual Windows- and Linux-based servers or desktop systems. The product also supports virtual operating system configuration from VMware, Microsoft, and Parallels. True Image Echo uses Acronis’ Virtual Live Data Format to separate hard drive data from the underlying file format and platform dependency, Acronis says, to create a transportable image that’s independent of the hardware platform, and users can restore directly to or from any virtual or physical machine. Other features include direct output of VMDK and VHD file formats, support for dynamic disks, wake on LAN, VMware Consolidated Backup, and 256-bit archive encryption. The workstation version is $79.99, while server versions for Windows or Linux are $699. An enterprise version is $999.
www.acronis.com/enterprise/pr/2007/11/pr11-13-echo.html

New from Aptare are its StorageConsole 6.5 and StorageConsole Capacity Manager products. StorageConsole 6.5 is an agentless, bridged platform that offers single Web 2.0 console access to backup reporting and storage management features. Meanwhile, StorageConsole Capacity Manager serves up unparalleled detail on the capacity utilization of storage arrays, hosts, and applications, the company says.
www.aptare.com/news_11192007.html

ViaBack RecoveryPlus, the data protection service from Arsenal Digital Solutions, allows users to balance the need for disk-based performance and reliability with market-proven and cost-effective secure tape options for long-term storage and transportability. This new service combines ViaBack, which incorporates deduplication technology and SATA-based disk support to maximize storage utilization rates and improve recovery point and recovery time objectives while establishing new levels of efficiency in storage with RecoveryPlus, an on-demand data protection service. RecoveryPlus cuts storage deployment and operational costs while allowing users to allocate disk and tape resources to better manage specific backup options and environments.
www.arsenaldigital.com/press-release-detail.php?id=27

Network Appliance has released the SnapValidator for Oracle Database 10g, which proactively inspects and catches potential data corruption or loss, increasing data reliability while helping to cut risk and unexpected downtime. NetApp and Oracle offer users defense and support for Oracle data, while eradicating the hardships associated with boosting the accuracy of their data. This includes unintended application errors, human errors that potentially copy data onto the incorrect storage resources, and data backup and restoration processes that make data vulnerable to damage or loss. NetApp and Oracle accomplish this through database awareness to NetApp modular storage systems.
www.netapp.com/news/press/news_rel_20071120

Reldata has introduced the 9240 SAS/ SATA Unified Storage System, which provides integrated iSCSI SAN, NAS, and WAN replication. With the 9240 SAS/ SATA Unified Storage System, it is possible to scale disk storage capacity, SAN/ NAS/WAN replication services, and network performance without interfering with application operations. The 9240 SAS/ SATA Unified Storage System includes Reldata’s 9000 Series Unified Storage Gateway with SAS and SATA storage. A 9240 SAS Unified Storage System with 1.75TB of storage costs approximately $60,000, and a system with 9TB of storage costs about $65,000.

Seanodes has announced Exanodes storage software for server virtualization. With Exanodes, companies can use internal application server storage for a virtualized storage pool. With Exanodes’ shared internal storage capabilities, companies can eliminate the amount of data center floor space and power consumption necessary under traditional storage technologies. The product supports a sustained read/write speed of several gigabytes per second. In fact, Exanodes makes it possible to rebuild RAIDs very quickly, so that even a full terabyte of data may be rebuilt in less than an hour.