Security specialist Check Point Software Technologies announced the launch of the Virtual Systems platform, designed to help businesses consolidate security gateways onto a single appliance or open server. Organizations can secure multiple network segments by selecting a combination of Check Point software blade protections, including firewall, virtual private network (VPN), intrusion prevention (IPS), application control, URL filtering, anti-bot, antivirus and identity awareness.
Pricing starts at $3,000 for three virtual systems, which are available through the companys worldwide network of value-added resellers (VARs). Customers also benefit from fixed software blade licensing that allows a software blade license to be used across any number of Virtual Systems, and those using Check Point 4800 appliances and above will also receive a Virtual System bundled with each appliance.
“For many companies, virtualized security has become a strategic technology investment. Consolidating multiple security functions onto a single gateway can result in significant cost savings,” Chris Christiansen, program vice president for security products and services at IT analytics firm IDC, said in a press statement. “Check Point’s security expertise, combined with its Software Blade Architecture, offers customers a solution to ease network strain and complexity when securing private cloud environments.”
The platform allows companies to build secure private clouds on a gateway or open server and consolidate up to 250 Virtual Systems on a single gateway, with customized software blade protections and policies tailored to individual business needs. In addition, Virtual Systems can cluster up to eight gateways using Check Point’s Virtual System Load Sharing (VSLS) technology, and the platform is supported on the companys range of enterprise and data center appliances.
“From enterprises to large service providers, administrators often have multiple security appliances in place, each requiring separate maintenance and management, which can make security expensive, difficult to manage and inefficient. An effective way to minimize complexity and cost is through security virtualization,” Dorit Dor, vice president of products at Check Point Software Technologies, said in prepared remarks. “Check Point has been providing customers with virtual firewalls on dedicated systems for years. Now, Check Point is taking virtualization to the next level — enabling customers to provision virtual systems on every gateway and with the breadth of software blade protections.”
The solution utilizes multicore processors with CoreXL technology and an upgraded 64-bit GAiA operating system to boost performance for virtualized security, which boasts eight times more concurrent connections than previous versions. For the first time, organizations have the ability to truly leverage the power of virtualized security and deploy all of the protections they need using virtual systems just as they do with their physical gateways,” Dors statement concluded.