Check Point Digs Into Remote-Access Space; Nokia Adds To VPN Line

Sweta Duseja, product marketing manager at Check Point, said the vendor's new VPN-1 Edge product is aimed at enterprise or midmarket customers with remote sites that they want to manage centrally from a security standpoint, such as a retail operation with multiple locations or a franchisor that wants to deploy a set of standard access parameters. It could also be attractive for companies interested in setting up extranets, she said.

"The enterprise customer would purchase this from their assigned VAR and then give them to the remote sites," Duseja said.

Check Point's new line, available immediately, comes in two series. Both use Check Point's SMART security management architecture, include VPN-1 Embedded NG deployment technology, and work using stateful inspection.

The S8 model, priced at $399, supports interfaces including a four-port LAN switch and 1 WAN port, and offers a 22-Mbps firewall, a 3-Mbps VPN and up to 2,000 concurrent connections. It is targeted at price-sensitive home users or small remote offices.

The X series version of the VPN-1 Edge product line can scale up to 8,000 concurrent connections and can act as a full-fledged site-to-site VPN that performs at up to 30 Mbps, with a firewall that performs at speeds up to 150 Mbps. The series is priced starting at $799.

Eric Eder, president of Intelligent Connections, a Detroit-based Check Point Platinum partner focused entirely on the security market, said the vendor listened to its channel partners when it extended the VPN-1 line, giving them the option to sell the new VPN-1 Edge offering based on either user count or bandwidth. "The whole line is applicable to our marketplace," he said.

The management features of the new offering will be particularly key for winning deals. "Customers want to be secure and well-managed. Management has always been a strength of Check Point, Eder said.

Nokia's new VPN/firewall offering, the Nokia IP40 line, also comes prelicensed and preinstalled with the Check Point VPN-1 Embedded NG software. Its primary target customers are remote or branch offices and service providers, said executives at Nokia Enterprise Systems, Mountain View, Calif.

The IP40 appliances include Nokia Horizon Manager, for centralizing the management of gateway and VPN information; an additional Ethernet port so that a user can secure two networks at the same time separately; and support for the Virtual Routing Redundancy Protocol (VRRP).

There are four models in the IP40 line, priced from $549 to $1,999, depending on the number of licenses. The devices are slated to ship in November.

Nokia executives said the company plans to offer a migration path to the new products from the current IP30 line, but details have not been finalized.