TippingPoint Pushes 5-Gig Protection

TippingPoint Technologies Inc. will unveil its first new product following its $430 million acquisition by 3Com Corp. (Nasdaq: COMS), at this weeks RSA Conference in San Francisco (see 3Com Takes TippingPoint).

The company, which is now operating as a division of 3Com, is launching its new high-end IPS device, the 5000E. Like Tipping Point’s previous top-of-the-range device, the 2400, the 5000E has a 2U form factor and is built around the same internal architecture. But there is one major difference: throughput.

Whereas the 2400 is capable of 2 Gbit/s of throughput, the 5000E can achieve 5 Gbit/s, according to Tipping Point execs. This figure is based on internal benchmarking, although the Austin, Texas-based vendor says that the 2400’s performance has already received the rubber stamp from a number of third-party testing firms.

Tipping Point is not the only company playing in the busy security appliance space, and the 5000E comes up against products from rival vendors Juniper Networks Inc. (Nasdaq: JNPR) and McAfee Inc. The 5000E certainly appears to be stretching the throughput envelope. McAfee’s top-end appliances, the IntruShield 4010 and 4000 are both capable of 2 Gbit/s, and Juniper’s high-end box, the NetScreen IDP-1000, offers 1 Gbit/s.

One organization in a good position to judge the merits of the 5000E is the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, which uses several 2400s in its network. Doug Brown, the University’s manager of security services tells NDCF that he has been testing a 5000E for the last two months.Even in this time, he has noticed an improvement in network efficiency. “The 5-Gigabit capability means that your Gigabit fiber links can be more fully utilized,” he says.

Tipping Point also offers enhanced protection against Syn Flood attacks on the 5000E, according to Andy Salo, Tipping Point’s director of product management. “The 2400 has some denial-of-service protection, but not the Syn Proxy capabilities to protect in a more advanced way,” he says.

But Jon Arnold, VOIP program leader at analyst firm Frost & Sullivan believes that the 5-Gbit/s throughput is the box’s major selling point. He also says that the launch is well timed to coincide with VOIP’s growing popularity in the enterprise.

”VOIP is moving up the foodchain and getting more acceptance in large enterprise networks,” he says. “IP deployments need faster throughputs.”

The move could be a significant one for Tipping Point, which has previously concentrated on adding devices to the lower end of its product family, most recently launching the 100-Mbit/s UnityOne 100E device (see TippingPoint Unveils UnityOne-100E).“This is a recognition that the higher end of the market is starting to learn how to deal with IP deployments in their networks,” says Arnold.

Juniper and McAfee were unavailable for comment.

— James Rogers, Site Editor, Next-Gen Data Center Forum