Our customers will benefit from many new enhancements, including but not limited to: further performance gains, improved service continuity and response times, and inspection of SSL traffic, all managed by a highly intuitive new management interface. The main new features of version 9 center on 3 areas: performance, control and of course, protection.

Like physical environments, virtual networks can suffer from bandwidth abuse, Denial-of-Service (DoS) attacks, viruses and vulnerability exploits. These threats jeopardize the network availability as well as the productivity of the employees.

To fully take advantage of virtualization by nullifying its risks, businesses do not just need real time protection against current and future threats, but also to regain complete visibility and control of applications flaws on the different virtual servers.

NETASQ’s architecture combines the performance of hardware acceleration with the flexibility of software. Using only half the resources of a classic architecture for the same level of inspection, Version 9 acts as a genuine “software ASIC”, boosting for instance the performance of its NG series by more than 50%.

Another measure of an infrastructure’s performance is its resilience. To guarantee optimum continuity of service and the fastest response times, the operational switch-over delay from redundancy to active firewall service has been cut to less than a second.

According to IDC analysts, more than 40% of network security flaws can be attributed to errors in firewall configuration. To address this, NETASQ’s version 9 offers the most intuitive management interface to date. Its refreshing simplicity, combined with many innovative usability enhancements, drastically reduce the risk of such configuration errors. For example, as new rules are created or modified, any logical inconsistencies are immediately highlighted – in real-time – alerting the administrator to potential security loopholes and thus shrinking the cost and duration of deployment.

NETASQ’s intrusion prevention engine sets a new standard for network security at the application layer. The patented IPS analyzes web applications on the fly, interpreting the various APIs, identifying the most advanced attacks and cleaning application traffic in real time.

Thanks to SSL decryption and to the multi-protocol inspection of encapsulated traffic, threats will no longer escape the watchful eye of the network manager.

- Automatic and transparent update of licenses throughout the product’s lifetime
- Unobtrusive integration with Active Directory
- Choice of inspection level (IPS, IDS, Firewall) configurable for each filter rule
- Vulnerability management, configurable in a single click
- Use of the “Internet” object in the policy for more specific authorizations
- Multi-level PKI available across the whole range
- Online help directly integrated into the management interface

Delivering the highest levels of protection without compromising performance or control is deeply embedded into NETASQ’s DNA. Our unique IPS-centric architecture has always allowed us to inspect traffic flows in more detail, and with greater processing speed, than other solutions on the market. With version 9, in spite of additional levels of protection being added, this unparalleled performance has been further increased with, for example, the NG Series achieving up to 50% greater throughput on IPsec VPNs, as well as faster web inspection and other overall performance gains.

With interconnected networks at the heart of most of today’s companies, quality and continuity of service is paramount. NETASQ High Availability ensures that even the most unlikely incident will have minimal to no impact on your business. With sub-second switch-over, even at gigabit throughput, critical connections such as voice over IP or online ordering, continue uninterrupted.

NETASQ version 9 brings to network security the most intuitive management interface ever. Web-based and objectoriented, step-by-step wizards guide you through set-up and configuration while advances in ergonomics ensure that the process is as natural and intuitive as possible. By hiding unnecessary complexity, the chances of leaving a security hole through misconfi guration are drastically reduced.

According to IDC, more than 40% of security breaches arise from errors in firewall configuration. With NETASQ version 9, real-time alerts while creating or editing the security policy, will further reduce the likelihood of such mistakes while simultaneously reducing the time and cost of deployment.

With multi-protocol SSL deep inspection embedded in version 9, you can rest assured that no threat will pass under the radar as a result of SSL encryption.

With NETASQ Application IPS, network security is taken to the next level. Overtaking all competing technology, the patented attack-prevention engine acts as a software ASIC, analyzing web applications on-the-fly, understanding different APIs, spotting the most advanced threats and cleaning them in realtime.

With the recent rise in targeted attacks, NETASQ vulnerability and applications detection (introduced in a previous version) has become an ever more important and unique advantage in version 9. This automatic early warning system enables security teams to pre-empt the latest threats by removing potential vulnerabilities, which could otherwise be exploited. When measuring the return on investment of their security solutions, many NETASQ customers have found this to be a definitive advantage.

Security teams often encounter reluctance from the IT department when deploying new security technologies. To help with this, NETASQ offers a range of scalable and evolving deployment scenarios. For example, some customers initially deploy in a pure fi rewall or threat detection mode, before later phasing in the full extent of threat prevention capabilities. By basing the deployment mode on security rules, even mixed deployment scenarios are available.

Although frequently overlooked when selecting a solution, license management should always be simple and transparent. From the day of initial purchase and throughout its life, your NETASQ appliance will automatically download and apply new license options as they become available, without any interruption of service.