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Cisco Launches Self-Defending Network v3.0
Official Close of IronPort Acquisition Allows Cisco to Combine Industry-Leading Content Security With Network Infrastructure Protection
| Quelle: Cisco Systems, Inc.
SAN JOSE, CA--(Marketwire - June 25, 2007) - Cisco® (NASDAQ : CSCO ) today announced it has
completed the acquisition of privately held IronPort Systems, Inc., the
leading provider of e-mail and web security products that provides
protection to businesses of all sizes -- from small organizations to
Fortune 1,000 firms -- from spam, spyware, phishing, and other Internet
security threats.
The acquisition, announced January 4, 2007, for $830 million in cash and
stock, marks a significant step in Cisco's evolution as a leader in
security and defines the future for information technology security.
IronPort's products and technology enable Cisco to extend its
Self-Defending Network strategy to now include Wide Traffic Inspection
capabilities, ensuring a new approach that combines the depth of
network-level security with the breadth of capabilities for inspecting
e-mail, web and Instant Messaging traffic.
A core element that powers IronPort is SenderBase, the world's first and
largest e-mail and Web traffic monitoring service. SenderBase is a unique
database that collects information from more than 100,000 Internet service
providers, universities and corporations around the world. It measures more
than 110 parameters for any active e-mail and Web server on the Internet,
helping to determine the trustworthiness of the source of any e-mail or Web
traffic. This massive database receives more than 5 billion queries per
day, and because of its size and scope, it can provide an extremely
accurate, global view of the behavior of e-mail and web servers across the
Internet.
According to Richard Palmer, senior vice president and general manager of
Cisco's Security Technology Group, this evolution of the Self-Defending
Network strategy will enable Cisco to provide customers with integrated
end-to-end IT security never before offered from a single company.
"The acquisition of IronPort provides Cisco with a proven business that is
already respected as a leader in the messaging and Web security space,"
Palmer said. "The addition of IronPort represents the next chapter in the
evolution of the Self-Defending Network, and it accelerates Cisco's growth
opportunities. Most important, it dramatically extends the solutions we can
provide our customers as security threats and demands evolve."
Cisco's vision for a Self-Defending Network is to incorporate protection
into the entire network infrastructure (within its core routing and
switching portfolio) and extend that protection from the network (at the
packet level) to applications and content. The addition of IronPort's
content security technology allows Cisco to provide Wide Traffic Inspection
that integrates network and content analysis to stop the most sophisticated
threats and protect all major application protocols, endpoints, and the
network itself.
"Cisco's acquisition of IronPort underscores the convergence between secure
content management and threat management needed to address today's complex
threat environment," said Brian Burke, research manager for IDC's Security
Products service. "IT departments have moved away from a focus on a single
type of protection, such as antivirus, toward a broader focus on threats
designed to get past point-solution security and target multiple
vulnerabilities in clients and corporate networks."
"IronPort is known for building industry-leading e-mail appliances, but
when we introduced our Web security appliance last year, we realized the
power of products working better together," said Scott Weiss, former CEO of
IronPort and now general manager of the IronPort Business Unit reporting to
Palmer. "Our e-mail products are better because we have a web product and
vice versa. Merging this technology into Cisco's Self-Defending Network
portfolio creates even more powerful solutions for the marketplace."
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