Radware buys IPS/IDS vendor V-Secure for $15 million

Momentum for switch makers buying securing companies rolled on this week, as Radware announced plans to purchase IPS vendor V-Secure for $15 million.

The V-Secure acquisition gives Radware a pure intrusion-prevention system/ intrusion detection system (IPS/IDS) technology to run on its Layer 4-7 switch hardware and appliances. Radware’s security switches identify traffic patterns of common denial-of-service attacks and other attack methods, using its hardware-based Layer 4-7 packet inspection engines along with security software for identifying malicious traffic.

Radware makes load-balancing and application-layer switches, as well as application acceleration appliances, and IPS/IDS-capable switches. The company says it will integrate V-Secure’s IPS software into its DefensePro line of IPS/IDS hardware, as well as its new APSolute Operating System software, which runs on Radware appliances. APSolute OS-based products include gear for optimizing WAN traffic, load balancing applications, and security products.

The V-Secure makes IPS software it calls Adaptive Smart Dynamic Filter (ASDF), which scans live network traffic streams and cuts off packets it identifies as anomalous or suspicious, based on the network’s common traffic patterns and usage, the vendor says.

Radware competes with application acceleration vendors such as F5, Citrix’s NetScaler product, Juniper’s RedLine device, and gear from Coyote Point, Crescendo, Foundry and others. In the IPS/IDS market, Radware goes up against such vendors as Internet Security Systems, Cisco, 3Com’s TippingPont products, Top Layer Networks, Symantec and McAfee.