Sun, Check Point join forces

High-speed firewall/VPN gear based on Sun server hardware.

Sun this week is scheduled to introduce a bundle of its server hardware with Check Point Software technology to create firewall/VPN appliances that, at the high end, are suitable for protecting data centers.

Dubbed the Sun LX50 VPN-Firewall Appliance Secured by Check Point Software, the gear comes with either one or two processors to offer a range of throughput up to a 2G bit/sec firewall or 640M bit/sec VPN encryption, fast enough to filter and encrypt traffic in and out of corporate data centers.

The high-end box will compete with the Nokia IP740, a custom hardware appliance that boasts 2G bit/sec firewall throughput and sports Check Point VPN-1/ Firewall-1 software. Nokia's box is listed at more than $20,000, which is in the range of the high-end Sun appliance. A low-end LX 50 comes with one Pentium III processor and the high-end system comes with two.

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Sun this week is scheduled to introduce a bundle of its server hardware with Check Point Software technology to create firewall/VPN appliances that, at the high end, are suitable for protecting data centers.

Dubbed the Sun LX50 VPN-Firewall Appliance Secured by Check Point Software, the gear comes with either one or two processors to offer a range of throughput up to a 2G bit/sec firewall or 640M bit/sec VPN encryption, fast enough to filter and encrypt traffic in and out of corporate data centers.

The high-end box will compete with the Nokia IP740, a custom hardware appliance that boasts 2G bit/sec firewall throughput and sports Check Point VPN-1/ Firewall-1 software. Nokia's box is listed at more than $20,000, which is in the range of the high-end Sun appliance. A low-end LX 50 comes with one Pentium III processor and the high-end system comes with two.

The box has two open slots that can be fitted with four-port 10/100M bit/sec Ethernet cards, dual-port Gigabit Ethernet cards or VPN accelerator cards. It is a general-purpose Sun server with a Linux operating system hardened by stripping off support for services that are unnecessary to firewall and VPN functions.

Sun and Check Point have collaborated before, first in February with Sun's iForce Perimeter Security bundle, which included Sun hardware and Check Point software, as well as antivirus and intrusion-detection tools from other security vendors. When Sun announced the LX 50 server in August, it said it was working with Check Point and others to optimize the platform for their software. Check Point also has ported its premium Performance Pack software to run on Sun's Solaris operating system.

Prices of the hardware ranges from $3,300 to $5,700 depending on the configuration, plus the Check Point software that ranges from $1,000 to $25,000. The bundle is available next month.

Read more about security in Network World's Security section.