Barracuda Boasts 'Bare Metal' Performance With Eon

Barracuda Networks unveiled a network virtualization platform at Interop dubbed Barracuda Eon for running and managing Barracuda Vx machines. Eon is designed to make it easier for enterprises to consolidate virtualized network appliances and applications while addressing lag and latency.

The company says enterprises can expect "bare metal" performance for a whole host of its network applications, including its Spam & Virus Firewall Vx, SSL VPN Vx, Web Filter Vx, NG Firewall Vx and the Web Application Firewall Vx. Barracuda Eon integrates with OpenFlow-enabled devices and networks and provides up to 240 Gbps throughput to reduce hardware- and hypervisor-related bottlenecks, and is engineered so that applications are isolated in such a way that one doesn't negatively affect the performance of another.

Barracuda Eon is available immediately in five sizes; pricing starts at $16,500. Barracuda is demonstrating Eon at Interop Las Vegas booth No. 1,250.

Big Switch Leverages F5 API for New Cloud Framework

Big Switch Networks is teaming up with F5 to simplify the building and orchestration of private clouds by combining F5's BIG-IQ Cloud REST API with its Big Virtual Switch Application. Using F5's API, Big Switch will integrate its network virtualization platform, its BIG-IP Application Delivery Networking service and OpenStack into single cloud orchestration framework.

The chief benefit of this combination is that network administrators will no longer have to manually define and deploy compute resources and network connections individually, the company says. Virtual networks can be programmed and automatically connected to F5-based server resources using Big Virtual Switch. F5 launched the BIG-IQ Cloud framework late last month to help customers quickly deploy ADN services in a consistent and repeatable manner across public and private clouds, traditional data centers and hybrid environments.

The Big Switch/F5 combination is being demonstrated at Interop Las Vegas 2013 booth No. 2,127.

Dell Targets Midmarket With High-Performance Next-Gen Firewall Series

Dell's latest next-gen firewall is aimed at midsize and distributed enterprises. The SonicWall Network Security Appliance Series Next-Generation Firewalls offer low latency and the same security and capabilities as the enterprise-class SuperMassive Series.

The new NSA Series includes 10 Gigabit Ethernet connectivity and is designed for midsize organizations, branch offices, school campuses and government agencies. The series uses a scalable multicore hardware architecture and a single-pass, low-latency Reassembly-Free Deep Pack Inspection engine, which allows for an integrated firewall and intrusion-prevention system in one appliance. The series ranges from six to 24 cores and feature 10GbE SFP+ interfaces, full stateful high-availability failover and high-performance SSL decryption.

Availability and pricing were not disclosed.

McAfee Adds Next-Gen Firewall to Its Portfolio

McAfee has made an offer to acquire Stonesoft Oyj for approximately $389 million in cash to round out its network security offerings. Stonesoft's line of products include next-gen firewalls, evasion-prevention systems and SSL VPN technology used by enterprises of all sizes and will be integrated with McAfee products as part of the company's Security Connected strategy.

Stonesoft, based in Finland, was identified by Gartner as a "visionary" in the analyst firm's 2013 Network Security Firewall Magic Quadrant. The company has 6,500 customers worldwide. McAfee says Stonesoft's next-gen firewall will complement its IPS Network Security Platform and Firewall Enterprise for the high-assurance market segment. Earlier this year McAfee acquired the ValidEdge sandboxing technology from LynuxWorks to expand its anti-malware capabilities.

Motorola Stretches Wi-Fi Capacity With 802.11ac Access Points

Motorola Solutions has launched a suite of indoor and outdoor access points using the 802.11ac standard. The AP 8232, AP 8222 and AP 8263 address a variety of deployment scenarios enterprises and government agencies face when looking to accommodate mobile video and streaming media applications on their networks.

The new access points are backward compatible with previous 802.11 standards and can be integrated with location and security sensing for mobile commerce applications that connect. The AP 8232 and 8222 are designed for indoor use, while the ruggedized AP 8263 is for outdoor use and features a tri-radio, fixed configuration and supports integrated, wireless intrusion prevention and location sensing out of the box.

Motorola also updated its WiNG 5 software, which provides real-time content caching and allows for centralized management of enterprise branch office access points.