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Check Point's new software blade architecture

Check Point Software Technologies has announced its new Software Blade architecture that empowers businesses with the ability to select from a library of over 20 software blades the exact security protections necessary and dynamically tailor security gateways for different environments and sites.

Security environments of large, medium and small companies are becoming more complex as they attempt to address continually evolving threats. Many organisations complain about the need to use multiple products, hardware platforms, management consoles and daily monitoring systems. Check Point Software Blade architecture offers businesses a common platform to deploy independent, modular and interoperable security applications or software blades – such as firewall, virtual private network (VPN), intrusion prevention system (IPS), anti-virus, policy management or provisioning blades. The architecture allows customers to select the exact security software blades they need and then to combine them into a single, centrally managed gateway.

With the new Software Blade architecture customers will be able to move functionality from one system to another, consolidate or split functionality between systems and guarantee performance for each software blade by setting usage thresholds. All these capabilities will enable customers to scale their security needs while reducing security cost of ownership.

For example, a business could start with a single core, single blade firewall system. That business can turn on functionality such as VPN, network anti-virus, VoIP security and intrusion prevention by adding four blades turning their system into a five blade system. To meet their performance needs the system can be upgraded into a two, four or eight core computing system, enabling multigigabit performance with the extended functionality.

Key benefits of the Check Point Software Blade Architecture include:

* Flexibility – Provides the right level of protection at the right level of investment.

* Manageability – Enables fast deployment of security functions and increased productivity through central management of software blades.

* Total Security – Provides the right level of security, at all enforcement points, and at all layers of the network.

* Guaranteed performance – Enables performance setting per blade to ensure guaranteed performance.

* Lower TCO - Protects investment by enabling consolidation and leveraging existing infrastructure.

“IDC expects the next generation of security products to offer more flexibility in both features and deployment options, a trend that is accelerated by the current state of the economy and the demand for more cost-effective solutions. Check Point’s new Software Blade architecture offers customers important flexibility and customisation options to deliver security tailored to each enterprise’s specific environment,” said Andrew Hanson, network and endpoint security analyst at IDC. “Software Blades’ modular approach can also supply cost saving benefits as they can be deployed dynamically without the need to upgrade hardware, firmware or drivers.”

Software blades can be deployed on Check Point UTM-1 or Power-1 appliances as well as open servers. Additional information on the new Check Point Software Blade architecture can be found at: www.checkpoint.com/products/softwareblades/architecture/index.html

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