Crossbeam Appliance Aimed At Midmarket

Customers have widely differing opinions on which particular elements in a switch are most important to the midmarket, so Crossbeam provides a suite of preloaded software covering a large variety of applications. Customers are offered a 30-day trial evaluation of the suite. Once the box is up and running, the customer and solution provider can decide which particular applications are best suited for the environment, and the solution provider can then supply the licenses and gold key activation.

The software suite includes network (FW, VPN and IDS), mail (FW, antivirus and spam filter) and Web (FW, Port 80 control, URL filtering and active mobile code) solutions. The unit ships with some optional shareware applications including Snort, an IDS shareware; and Squid, a Web proxy cache shareware.

The device also offers a great return on investment because it offers customers significant dollar savings when compared with Nokia or Cisco Systems, Crossbeam's main competitors in this space. By running multiple security applications, it offers more layers of security, thereby preventing security breaches and saving customers money in the long run.

Significant dollar savings also come from the secret sauce of the C30, its X-Stream technology.

X-Stream allows the unit to offer multiport IDSes at no extra licensing fee charge. IDS deployment licenses cost approximately $9,000 per port, so independently monitoring numerous Internet segments can become expensive very quickly. With a virtual tab interface known as a shadow port, the C30 is capable of aggregating up to 18 ports. This is a huge savings in license and maintenance costs but, more importantly, it is a cost-effective way to manage multiport IDSes.

With other IDS solutions, every port that is monitored costs money, even ports with very low traffic utilization. Also, companies often end up not monitoring enough ports or not deploying IDSes at all. Most companies use IDSes only within their perimeter, which means just inside or outside the firewall. Companies need to monitor every port to prevent unacceptable downloading of software or other events that tax bandwidth, and this can be handled by Crossbeam's C30.

Though X-Stream is a significant technological advancement, Crossbeam still bundles its best-in-class IDS so channel partners can continue selling what they are used to.

The X-Stream technology also provides hardware firewall acceleration. The box's architecture incorporates two processor boards: a network processor board for network traffic acceleration and an application processor board for applications such as antivirus and IDS. The existence of the two boards allows the box to run multiple applications at a very high performance level.

Another advantage is that the C30 allows partners to offer a cost-effective solution while still maintaining their customers' preference for best-in-class IDSes, instead of losing the deal to a price-competitive but not best-in-class IDS appliance.

Even though the appliance is rather simple to deploy, there are a lot of steps involved. So besides cashing in on the turnkey software bundle, solution providers can generate revenue through installation and setup.

One gripe the Test Center had about the C30 is how the company portrays the unit. Crossbeam calls it a security switch, and so engineers expected a Layer 2 or Layer 3 switch. They were therefore surprised when the C30 arrived, as the device fits more into an environment where an appliance typically would be deployed. Crossbeam agreed with CRN engineers on this point and said that the labeling of the box has created confusion among some of its customers.

The C30 is a premium product for midsize enterprises and is being sold into many verticals, such as financial companies, universities and the entertainment business. Some carriers are looking at it for managed services.

When selecting a security/switch appliance, solution providers need to consider many factors, including user count, number of locations, and the features and type of infrastructure required. Only by carefully balancing customer needs with feature sets and capabilities will solution providers find the best fit for their customers.

CHANNEL PROGRAM SNAPSHOTS
>CROSSBEAM SYSTEMS C30
PRICE: $24,000
WARRANTY: 1 year parts and labor
DISTRIBUTORS: Direct from vendor
TECH RATING:

CHANNEL RATING:

CHANNEL OVERVIEW: Concord, Mass.-based Crossbeam Systems began its channel program in February 2003, and though currently it sells directly to solution providers, it will be adding distributors next year. The vendor has a protected margin program and awards additional points for solution providers that bring in new leads. Crossbeam collaborates with its partners on joint sales calls, seminars and newsletters for customers. 24x7 phone-based technical application and platform technical support is provided, as is on-site or phone-based sales and technical training as required. Sales and marketing tools, promotions, technical resources and training materials are available at Crossbeam's partner site.

Note: Vendors can earn up to five stars for technical merit and five for their channel program. If the average of these two scores is four stars or greater, the product earns CRN Test Center Recommended status.