Nortel Beefs Up Alteon Security

As Web services take hold among enterprise clients, building security into Layer 4-7 switching platforms is a natural progression, said Oliver Gnass, director of channel strategy at the Brampton, Ontario based networking hardware vendor. "Security has become integral to the success of our enterprise customers," Gnass said.

To that end, Nortel this week introduced the Alteon Switched Firewall 5114, and an eight and 16 port version of the Alteon Application Switch, which was previously available with a minimum of 24 ports. Nortel also upgraded the Alteon Operating System and the Alteon SSL VPN software.

Bart Graf, a director at Integration Partners, a Cambridge, Mass.-based Nortel partner, said the new Alteon products are in step with what customers are seeking. "Two or three years ago, Layer 4-7 switching was about load balancing," he said. "But as customers provide remote access to applications, there is an increased need for securing those applications."

Application layer security features in the Alteon OS 21.0 release include denial of service protection and XML and SOAP inspection functionality. The XML and SOAP inspection provides Web services-aware traffic management that inspects, classifies and directs Web Services traffic.

The new Alteon SSL VPN release 4.1 is designed for companies that use SSL VPNs as their primary means of remote access. The software offers dynamic access control to assess the security level of a client and restrict access accordingly. The release also features auto log-off to automatically time-out a session and purge all cached information after a period of inactivity.

Nortel also introduced a channel program specific to its Alteon product line, the Alteon Expert Advantage Program, which offers partners additional discounts and rebates for meeting sales targets and certifying staff.