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Symantec Does the Trust-but-Verify Thing

Symantec Corp. is shipping its Gateway Security 5600 Series of multi-function network security appliances designed to proactively protect against blended computer virus and worm threats.

“We shipped our first unit yesterday,” says Michele Araujo, Symantec senior product manager.

The Symantec Gateway Security (SGS) 5600 Series is the third generation of Symantec’s 5000 Series security platform and features three models with scalable throughput for small and medium-sized businesses as well as for enterprise branch offices.

Symantec’s SGS family of security devices provides an all-in-one-box, multi-function security appliance to handle many corporate needs. The three models in the 5600 Series provide seven security functions in a single unit with a single management console.

These include “tightly integrated anti-spam, antivirus, clientless SSL and IPSec virtual private network, full-inspection firewall, intrusion prevention, intrusion detection, and both dynamic document review and URL list-based content filtering technologies to provide zero-day protection for the network perimeter,” a company statement said.

At the top of the range, the model 5660 is designed for larger offices, or higher bandwidth needs and can protect up to 5,000 nodes, or more in a cluster, and can function in a cluster of up to eight nodes. The unit features redundant disks and power supplies, 10 ports for Gigabit Ethernet as well as up to four fiber ports, and can handle as much as 3 Gbps throughput.

At the low end, the model 5620 is designed for offices of up to 500 users, and is intended to capture the more price-sensitive, sub-$5,000 buyers. It features six Gigabit Ethernet ports and can handle up to 600 Mbps of throughput.

The 5660 ranges from $11,000 to $35,000 depending on configuration, while the 5620 starts at $4,000 and ranges up to $19,000. In between, the model 5640 supports up to 2,500 users and ranges in price from $5,000 to $21,000, the company said.

All provide automatic security content updates via Symantec’s LiveUpdate technology from Symantec Security Response. They also support corporate environments that use VLANs to segment networks.

About the Author

Stuart J. Johnston has covered technology, especially Microsoft, since February 1988 for InfoWorld, Computerworld, Information Week, and PC World, as well as for Enterprise Developer, XML & Web Services, and .NET magazines.

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