IPolicy releases multifunction firewall

Security vendor iPolicy Networks this week unveiled a multifunction VPN/firewall that can let customers block viruses, spam and Web access either at the Internet perimeter or inside the corporate LAN as a partition.

The ipEnforcer appliance, which comes with the Unified Security Manager (USM) Console, can run the Network Associates McAfee anti-virus and SurfControl content-filtering software. It’s intended for use in organizations with up to 500 employees.

The USM Console software, which runs on Windows or Solaris, can manage approximately 1,000 of the ipEnforcer appliances from a central location, controlling employee access to the Web and monitoring employee use of the network. The company says the appliance also can block denial-of-service attacks.

Each ipEnforcer appliance, which can reach speeds of 10M to 400M bit/sec, can support 200,000 simultaneous sessions, which is now the average among midrange firewalls. The security start-up also has a high-end 5G bit/sec version of the ipEnforcer appliance it shipped last year, but that box is aimed at ISPs to provide anti-virus and anti-spam services.

Formed in 2000 by its CTO Pankaj Perekh, formerly senior engineering manager at Intel for development of Pentium II desktop and server products, iPolicy now has 140 employees and has received $46 million in venture capital from Clearstone Venture Partners, Dali, Hook Partners and WK Technology Fund.

Richard Stiennon, an analyst with Gartner, says iPolicy “single-pass inspection engine” that lets multiple security functions block malicious traffic is designed to be able to adapt quickly to new security technologies. IPolicy two weeks ago got a boost from Gartner by winning a place in the research firm’s “2004 Enterprise Firewall Magic Quadrant” report, an annual look at this industry segment. The research firm awarded iPolicy a spot in the “visionary” category, which also included Network Associates, TippingPoint Technologies, NetContinuum, Teros, Whale Communications, MagniFire WebSystems and Top Layer Networks.

The ipEnforcer with USM Console ranges in price from $15,000 to $50,000, depending on security functions selected to run on each appliance.