Cisco Launches Self-Defending Network v3.0

    Cisco announced it has
    completed the acquisition of privately held IronPort Systems, Inc., the
    leading provider of e-mail and web security products that provides
    protection to businesses of all sizes – from small organizations to
    Fortune 1,000 firms – from spam, spyware, phishing, and other Internet
    security threats.

    The acquisition, announced January 4, 2007, for $830 million in cash
    and stock, marks a significant step in Cisco’s evolution as a leader in
    security and defines the future for information technology security.
    IronPort’s products and technology enable Cisco to extend its
    Self-Defending Network strategy to now include Wide Traffic Inspection
    capabilities, ensuring a new approach that combines the depth of
    network-level security with the breadth of capabilities for inspecting
    e-mail, web and Instant Messaging traffic.

    A core element that powers IronPort is SenderBase, the world’s first
    and largest e-mail and Web traffic monitoring service. SenderBase is a
    unique database that collects information from more than 100,000
    Internet service providers, universities and corporations around the
    world. It measures more than 110 parameters for any active e-mail and
    Web server on the Internet, helping to determine the trustworthiness of
    the source of any e-mail or Web traffic. This massive database receives
    more than 5 billion queries per day, and because of its size and scope,
    it can provide an extremely accurate, global view of the behavior of
    e-mail and web servers across the Internet.

    According to Richard Palmer, senior vice president and general manager
    of Cisco’s Security Technology Group, this evolution of the
    Self-Defending Network strategy will enable Cisco to provide customers
    with integrated end-to-end IT security never before offered from a
    single company.

    “The acquisition of IronPort provides Cisco with a proven business that
    is already respected as a leader in the messaging and Web security
    space,” Palmer said. “The addition of IronPort represents the next
    chapter in the evolution of the Self-Defending Network, and it
    accelerates Cisco’s growth opportunities. Most important, it
    dramatically extends the solutions we can provide our customers as
    security threats and demands evolve.”

    Cisco’s vision for a Self-Defending Network is to incorporate
    protection into the entire network infrastructure (within its core
    routing and switching portfolio) and extend that protection from the
    network (at the packet level) to applications and content. The addition
    of IronPort’s content security technology allows Cisco to provide Wide
    Traffic Inspection that integrates network and content analysis to stop
    the most sophisticated threats and protect all major application
    protocols, endpoints, and the network itself.

    “Cisco’s acquisition of IronPort underscores the convergence between
    secure content management and threat management needed to address
    today’s complex threat environment,” said Brian Burke, research manager
    for IDC’s Security Products service. “IT departments have moved away
    from a focus on a single type of protection, such as antivirus, toward a
    broader focus on threats designed to get past point-solution security
    and target multiple vulnerabilities in clients and corporate networks.”

    “IronPort is known for building industry-leading e-mail appliances, but
    when we introduced our Web security appliance last year, we realized the
    power of products working better together,” said Scott Weiss, former CEO
    of IronPort and now general manager of the IronPort Business Unit
    reporting to Palmer. “Our e-mail products are better because we have a
    web product and vice versa. Merging this technology into Cisco’s
    Self-Defending Network portfolio crea
    tes even more powerful solutions
    for the marketplace.”

    Exit mobile version