14South puts security on server blades

A company named 14South has been making blades for server hardware that run security software, making it possible to add security to a specific server without sapping its performance.

The blades, falling in the IntraLock family, support servers running Windows, Unix, Linux and FreeBSD operating systems. The blades can also terminate IPSec VPN sessions by virtue of the Check Point VPN-1/Firewall-1 software that comes packaged with some of the blades.

Plugged into a PCI slot on a server, the card comes with its own processors so the encryption and decryption aren’t performed on the main server CPU. The cards can be dropped into the servers without the need to reconfigure the servers themselves; the cards act as if they were separate appliances.

This segregation of functions makes managing the security and the applications on the server simpler. The application software can be upgraded without affecting the security functions carried out on the card, the company says.

This configuration can keep down the number of devices sitting in the wiring closet, which is always a plus. But potential users might have concerns about whether such devices actually work when plugged into a standard server.

A recent study of this by The Tolly Group that is being released this week indicates it can. The study was commissioned by 14South and the report details the methodology used to perform the tests. Readers can pore through the document (https://www.tolly.com/DocDetail.aspx?DocNumber=204119) themselves and decide whether it substantiates 14South’s promises.