Cisco Expands Integrated Security System Portfolio

Cisco Systems on Tuesday expanded its integrated security systems product portfolio, unveiling a smorgasbord of new hardware and software tools designed to facilitate enhanced performance, flexibility, and network resilience to security threats.

The new additions, which advance Cisco's "Self-Defending Networks" strategy, focus on threat defense and secure connectivity products, and offer cost-effective and advanced performance and protection for networked businesses.

All of the products were expected to be available to channel partners immediately.

According to Scott Pope, manager of security platforms within Cisco's VPN and security business units, the new products and capabilities further expand Cisco's approach to security across the entire enterprise.

"Every device has a part to play in providing security," said Pope. "Our threat defense system starts at the jack in the wall and extends all the way out to the end point."On the software side, Cisco unveiled an array of threat defense system capabilities through its Cisco IOS Software Release 12.3T. The new capabilities include:

The Cisco IP Source Tracker, an IOS-based tool that helps customers identify and locate network entry points for denial of service (DoS) attacks to minimize business disruption.

Cisco IOS Firewall for Internet Protocol version 6, which provides firewall inspection to both existing IPv4 and IPv6 traffic on a single interface.

Expanded anomaly protocol inspection for the Extended Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (ESMTP), which gives customers advanced network packet inspection capabilities and helps protect against known mail attacks.

In the areas of secure connectivity and security management, Cisco also released the Cisco Security Device Manager 1.1, a software tool that eases the security and VPN management of IOS Software-based routers.Pope explained that the device includes new startup wizards for faster and easier security deployment, as well as one-step lockdown, which makes it easier for network administrators to enable security features on routers in a flash. It also supports new Cisco IOS Software redundancy features, including dial backup and redundant IP Security (IPsec) VPN tunnels.

On the hardware side, Cisco unveiled two new products: the Cisco 7301 Router and the Cisco VPN 3020 Concentrator.

The first product, the Cisco 7301 Router, extends the San Jose, Calif.-based company's line of integrated security routers, and supports 370-Mbps VPN throughput. The device also is integrated with high-performance firewalling, routing and Quality of Service (QoS) management capabilities in a compact one-rack unit.

The second product, the Cisco VPN 3020 Concentrator, is a new addition to the company's VPN 3000 Series of concentrators and offers integrated IPSec and Secure Socket Layer (SSL) remote VPN access.

The device supports the Triple Data Encryption Standard (3DES) and Advanced Encryption Standard (AES). Pope added that it offers scalable support for 750 concurrent IPSec users and up to 200 users on SSL VPN deployments.The Cisco 7301 Router was expected to retail for $21,000, while the Cisco VPN 3020 Concentrator was expected to retail for $9,995. Pricing for many of the new software tools varies depending on platform and implementation size. Some offerings, such as the Cisco Security Device Manager 1.1, were available at no charge as a configurable option on most Cisco routers.