Tipping Point Boosts Security Appliance Line

The vendor, based here, also unveiled a new capability for all of its appliances that prevents unauthorized use of peer-to-peer applications. In addition, Tipping Point announced new training programs for its solution provider partners.

The new UnityOne 200 appliance provides 200 Mbps throughput but features all of the functionality of the company's other UnityOne devices, which have faster throughputs, said Marc Willebeek-LeMair, Tipping Point CTO. The new appliance has 10/100 copper segments and costs $24,995.

"A number of customers said, 'I've got a lot of branch offices or remote sites that don't require the 400-Mbps capability. Can you offer something downstream?' " he said.

The UnityOne200 and all of the appliances now feature Tipping Point's new Peer-to-Peer Piracy Prevention capability, which can identify and block unauthorized P2P programs such as Kazaa, Willebeek-LeMair said.

File-sharing programs such as Kazaa not only consume bandwidth as users download music and movies, but also create liability and security problems for organizations, he said. "They [organizations] will be held liable for employees or students involved in piracy of copyrighted information," he said.

With the new products and technology, Tipping Point is providing its solution providers partners with three new training programs. The KickStart Product Training and KickStart Technical Training are free 90-minute programs held at a solution provider's headquarters in a lunch-and-learn format, said Tim Wickham, Tipping Point's director of channel operations.

"As we roll out these new products and sign up resellers, we wanted to put the tools in their hands that they would need to quickly and easily sell and service our product," he said.

The third program is a two-day Advanced Administration and Management course tailored for engineering staffers who have completed the KickStart training.

Tipping Point, which sells exclusively through the channel, works with about 35 solution provider partners in the United States, Wickham said.