Juniper SSG provides fast branch-office security

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The SSG comes with four gigabit Ethernet LAN ports built into the chassis with six slots that support both WAN and LAN cards. Now the device supports serial, T-1 and T-3 WAN ports and the company has plans to support Ethernet WAN connections. It supports the WAN cards that fit Juniper's J-Series branch office routers, so customers can reuse those if they decide to swap chassis.

Virtualization capabilities enable separating branch networks into segments with their IP address schemes as well as separate firewall rules. This will come in handy as branches make more use of Wi-Fi networking and want to isolate and secure access points on their own segments, Fabbi says, particularly when the access points are used by visitors.

For all its features, the SSG is attractive to customers simply looking for a faster firewall, says Perry Jarvis, the network operations manager for the City of Burbank in California. He'd like to put a firewall in front of key network assets, but can't afford more of Juniper's fast NetScreen 208 firewalls, which cost him about $9,000. But an SSG can protect gigabit links for less he says. "This is very comparable to what I'm buying but it has more ports than the 208, you can put Gigabit interfaces in them, which is something I could not do with the 208s," he says.

He may at some point want to add URL filtering to the SSG and get rid of his separate SurfControl server. "I can simplify my network model and do two or three security checks with one device," Jarvis says.

Base price for an SSG 520 is $6,000; base price for the SSG 550 is $10,000.

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