Redline steps up security features

Redline Networks is rolling out acceleration appliances geared toward government agencies and businesses looking not only for performance improvements in online content and applications, but also for tighter security for the traffic that crosses their networks.

Redline makes data center appliances that sit in front of servers to offload I/O processing and reduce the number of TCP connections the servers have to handle. In addition, the devices compress content to reduce the amount of bandwidth needed to deliver it. The company says customers, especially in government and financial sectors, have been asking for stepped-up security features within the acceleration appliances.

Analysts say growing concerns about security are causing government agencies and business to adopt Federal Information Processing Standards (FIPS). Redline is introducing the FIPS-compliant E/X 3650-FIPS, which includes a FIPS-140-2 Level 3-certified hardware module to ensure that all traffic processed by the box meets FIPS standards.

At the same time, Redline is unveiling a high-end appliance for businesses, the E/X 3650 Web I/O Accelerator. The company claims the new box delivers four times the performance of the E/X 3250, which was introduced earlier this year for businesses looking to speed up the delivery of applications across their intranets.

Both the E/X 3650 and the E/X 3650-FIPS are designed to accelerate and secure applications such as PeopleSoft, Lotus iNotes, Seibel and SAP. Both models are available now, and Redline says the U.S. Department of the Navy is already testing out the FIPS-compliant system.

Both the E/X 3650-FIPS and E/X 3650 Web I/O Accelerators come in a 2U form factor with redundant power supplies and a Gigabit Ethernet fiber-optic interface. Both models support 500,000 simultaneous user connections, 128 virtual IP addresses, and up to 64 servers per cluster.

The E/X 3650-FIPS can process more than 6,000 HTTPS requests per second and maintain 1,600 new Secure Sockets Layer connections per second, the company says. It complies with the FIPS-140-2 Level 3 specification.

The E/X 3650 is priced at about $53,000, while the E/X 3650-FIPS starts around $60,000.