Code Green Gets Green Light At Precision

Precision Computer Services has been working with Code Green Networks for only about six months, but already the Shelton, Conn.-based solution provider is seeing results.

One of Precision's missions is to keep its customers' network data safe from prying eyes. The VAR's clients operate in an array of verticals--pharmaceuticals, health care and financial services--where security is paramount.

Before partnering with Santa Clara, Calif.-based Code Green, Precision deployed mostly software-based security systems, but now end users are giving the solution provider positive feedback about Code Green's Content Inspection Appliance 1500 (CI-1500).

"Offering this product allows us to go in and do some security and storage assessments for our customers. We're looking at what kinds of sensitive information are flowing out of their networks," says Jennifer Savoia, director of engineering at Precision. "It's not necessarily about looking for people who are deliberately breaching security. In many cases, employees are inadvertently leaking sensitive data. This is mainly about educating our customers."

Sreekanth Ravi, chairman and CEO at 2-year-old Code Green, says the content-filtering market is growing rapidly. According to IDC, a market-research firm based in Framingham, Mass., multiprotocol content filtering accounted for $54 million in revenue in 2005. That number is expected to climb to $435 million by 2009.

Code Green refers to industrial espionage as a "booming business." The Privacy Rights Clearinghouse, a nonprofit organization dedicated to raising consumer awareness of how technology affects personal privacy, reports that more than 97 million records containing sensitive personal data have been misappropriated since February 2005.

The CI-1500, which resides at the customer's Internet gateway, monitors and analyzes outgoing network traffic--both structured and unstructured--and blocks traffic that violates corporate policy. The device protects data in more than 390 file formats, including Microsoft Office documents, images and industry-specific application files.

Released in mid-December last year, the CI-1500 is targeted at SMBs, costing $25,000 for 250 users or fewer. The price is $50,000 for 1,000 users or fewer.

"This is a highly affordable solution for small and midsize companies," Ravi says. "The next least expensive product of this type is $100,000."

The CI-1500, Code Green's debut offering, uses a technology called Deep Content Fingerprinting (DCF), a mathematical algorithm that creates "fingerprints," or unique representations, of confidential content. Data flowing out of a network that's identified as confidential by its fingerprint is blocked at the Net gateway.

In the way of partnerships, Code Green is capitalizing on the legacy of its CEO, and CTO Sudhakar Ravi--the co-founders of SonicWall.

"We're using the Code Green appliance in conjunction with our own solutions as part of a layered approach to protecting sensitive data," says Matt Medeiros, president and CEO of SonicWall.

Ravi says Code Green is pursuing an aggressive channel strategy, too, recruiting both VARs and distributors across the globe. "What we're offering solution providers is a turnkey appliance they can use to enhance the security of their customer networks," he says.

Adding the CI-1500 to their portfolios opens other doors of opportunity for VARs as well--among them, conducting customer security audits, defining security policies and developing custom policy templates for different vertical markets.