Wedge Networks Debuts Web Security Hardware

Security is a high priority for midmarket IT departments this year. Wedge Networks offers the midmarket new hardware to assist SMBs in their battle for Web security.

Calgary-based Wedge Networks, a network-based Web security solutions company, announced the immediate availability of the NDP-1005G, its new 1U rack-mountable hardware to power BeSecure Web Gateway, the company's Web security appliance.

The NDP-1005G is Wedge's latest addition to its network data processing platforms designed to combat malicious attacks over the Web and create a unified Web security platform with Web-filter and spam-filter modules. Wedge's BeSecure Web Gateway appliance inspects Web content at layer 7 in-line, offering content filtering and URL filtering features as well.

The company says the NDP-1005G's cost-to-performance ratio makes it a high performance Web security solution for small to medium-size businesses (SMBs) comprised of 50 to 500 users. "Since the beginning of 2009, we have seen the rate of malicious attacks double, resulting in greater risks to under-protected networks," said Wedge's chief scientist Husam Kinawi. "SMBs, in particular, are more vulnerable to Web security threats because they are not fully protected at the network level, typically running only firewalls and possibly intrusion-prevention devices."

Kinawi said there are minimal appliance options available to SMBs in the marketplace, and the existing solutions are predominately suited for mid-size and large enterprises. "As a result, SMBs are faced with a dilemma between costs, manageability and protection," he said. "The NDP-1005G hardware, alternatively, offers SMBs a single-box Web security appliance that is more affordable, easy to implement, deploy and maintain with little to no IT hassle."

Wedge promises midmarket companies seamless integration with service packs in order to increase protection from Web-based malicious code, including the company's BeSecure Anti-Spam Module and BeSecure Web-filter Module. Other features include automatic e-mail alerts for monitoring purposes, Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP) support for managing networks through central control stations, a user-friendly, Web-based interface and high availability clustering.

Kinawi said with the NDP-1005G hardware, Wedge's BeSecure Web Gateway appliance would enable SMBs to experience a low total cost of ownership and real-time, quantifiable benefits of an enterprise-class Web security solution built just for them.

"We are pleased to deliver these new features to the SMB market at an affordable price, especially now when many are struggling to balance budget cuts and maintaining a reliable security infrastructure," he said. "We highly advise that businesses maintain the security portion of their IT spending to ensure networks are secure from malicious Web threats that steal data and increase IT service costs.