Review: Reconnex's iGuard 2600S Plugs Data Leaks
Reconnex is looking to ease those burdens with its latest offering, the iGuard 2600s version 5.0, an appliance that is squarely aimed at keeping data safe. The iGuard 2600s is slated to be unveiled this week and is expected to begin shipping in early December. CRN Test Center engineers were able to get their hands on an engineering sample of the unit, which sports gold code and will be the same as the shipping product.
The iGuard 2600s appliance provides a turnkey solution for information monitoring and protection. The hardened device is used to address privacy concerns and protect intellectual property assets. Designed to be deployed at network egress points, the iGuard 2600s uses an inline tap mode that passively monitors all traffic with no impact on overall network performance.
Sitting at the edge of the network, the iGuard 2600s quietly gathers all network traffic and can store up to 2 Tbytes of traffic history. In practice, administrators use the device to identify sensitive data, author policies to block or allow transmission of that data and then report or investigate on any breaches. The unit includes a plethora of prebuilt policies that administrators can use as is or modify to their needs. Those policies dictate how the unit identifies and protects content, similar to that of a content-filtering appliance. The major difference between the iGuard 2600s and a pedestrian content-filtering appliance is that the iGuard 2600s focuses on outbound traffic.
The unit uses Reconnex's inSight console for unified, multisystem management and reporting. The console is flexible enough to allow VARs to remotely manage single or multiple devices and can be used to cross-manage various customer installations, bringing the VAR into the realm of a contractual-based service offering.
Users will find the inSight console easy to use, with ready access to reports and policy creation. The console also supports the company's higher-end products, the iGuard 3600 and 2600, which are aimed at large enterprises and mostly differ based on processing capacity. That said, the 2600s is rated for 100-Mbps throughput, which should be more than adequate for any small or medium enterprise or branch office.
Installation of the unit is almost plug-and-play simple. Concise documentation helps to simplify the install process, while canned policies and setup wizards help to speed the initial deployment. In most cases, the automated discovery and canned policies will suffice. Partners will find that a great deal of flexibility exists within policy creation, allowing the fine-tuning of rules and policies and also leading to service revenue generation.
The unit's feature set consists of discovery, monitoring, prevention, control and captureall of which are needed to effectively protect intellectual property. The discovery capability is worth noting as the product scans data repositories, file shares and other available information assets to "fingerprint" the data to be protected. That capability greatly reduces setup time.
The control aspect of the product leverages policies to identify fixed format data such as Social Security numbers or credit-card numbers as well as nonfixed data types, ranging from keywords to actual locations of the data (shares or depositories).
At a list price of $35,000, the unit is far from inexpensive, but when one considers the value of protected data or the severity of compliance failure fines, along with the legal liabilities associated with protecting data, the price of the unit becomes relatively insignificant. The price also includes predefined policies for HIPAA, Sarbanes-Oxley and Gramm-Leach-Bliley compliance.
All things considered, the iGuard 2600s proves to be one of the most complete solutions for protecting data and meeting compliance requirements. Whether it is keeping a lid on confidential data, keeping hackers out or protecting employees from data faux pas, the unit is up to the task.
The company recently revamped its channel program, showing a renewed commitment to the partner model. Reconnex is looking to move toward a 100 percent channel model with all sales going through authorized partners. The company will sign up partners using referral agreements, provide spifs for customer meetings with decision-makers and offer e-Risk Assessments and evaluations. Partners can expect double-digit margins on closed partner-referral business, and have access to a deal-registration program.
Partner support is enhanced by biweekly partner training Webinars, along with in-the-field pairing of direct sales team with partners.
Partners joining for the long haul will need to be security-oriented and will have access to a more traditional reseller model, which includes technical training, joint MDF/lead-generation and access to online tools and enhanced support.