Demarc's Sentarus is still in transition

Product: Sentarus Network Security Sensor

www.demarc.com

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Company: Demarc Threat Protection Solutions

Product: Sentarus Network Security Sensor

www.demarc.com

We caught Demarc in a state of transition with its product. Version 6 of the Sentarus platform includes a variety of threat-mitigation tools, including both host-focused and network-focused IPS. The big picture hand waving view is that they’re all magically tied together to prevent, detect and respond to attacks.

What we found is that the integration hasn’t moved quite as far off the drawing board as the marketing department contends, and the current IPS facilities in Sentarus lack significantly in management and configuration capabilities.

That’s not to say we didn’t find bright spots, such as Demarc’s dashboard and status reporting. Unfortunately, we also found a variety of bugs in this fresh-off-the-shelf security appliance.

The Demarc Sentarus may be a stronger performer than its numbers in this test suggest. Like NFR, which uses the same sensor hardware from OEM supplier Bivio Networks, Demarc discovered a hardware setting that may have led to asymmetric CPU loading, bringing performance down. Unfortunately, this news came after we concluded testing, so we weren’t able to verify that the new settings would help.

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