10 Smart Security Products Worth A Look

Networks Secured

Network monitoring, remote management and security products weren't in short supply at Interop New York. With more attention focused on the cloud and web-based applications, smarter products will be needed to safeguard those applications and offer granular data and sophisticated monitoring on how networks are performing with more demands placed upon them. Here's a look at some of CRN's favorite security and network monitoring products seen at Interop New York.

WatchPoint 2.0

At Interop New York, WatchPoint went live with WatchPoint 2.0, which consolidates SNMP, flow-based and packet-based network monitoring and reporting into a single, real-time analysis and reporting tool. The idea, according to WatchPoint, is to be able consolidate network engineering needs like deep packet inspection with analytics and custom reporting into one software platform.

Vyatta Network OS

Vyatta was at Interop New York showing off the latest enhancements to its Vyatta Network OS, version 6.3. Among the highlights, the software now includes compatibility with Red Hat Kernel-based Virtual Machine (KVM) hypervisors, meaning customers can connect Red Hat KVM-based data centers and clouds for use with IaaS, PaaS and SaaS systems. Version 6.3 includes a full virtual network security stack with enterprise-grade router, firewall, VPN, IPS, web filtering, QoS and other functions, according to Vyatta.

Opengear ARMS

The latest from remote management specialist Opengear is that its Automated Remote Management and Support (ARMS) functionality now appears on all of its products. First introduced at Interop Las Vegas five months ago, the ARMS functionality is now available for Opengear's $129 device servers on up to its $3,500 enterprise cellular 3G console servers, offering remote and secure automated remediation for systems administrators looking to assign policy and create rules in case of particular network events. If a certain UPS battery level is reached, for example, Opengear's ARMS can perform shut down in a way than doesn't harm system elements and do so before the whole system crashes.

AdRem Software NetCrunch

Krakow, Poland-based AdRem offers NetCrunch, an agentless network monitoring suite that automatically discovers TCP/IP nodes and uses them to create physical and logical network topology maps. It can draw fault management data from resources such as Windows Event Logs or SNMp traps, can provide real-time performance monitoring using various dashboards, can monitor multiple platforms at once, from Windows and Linux to Mac OS X and NetWare, and has more than 65 built-in network service monitors and 250 pre-defined monitoring rules. It also offers remote administration for IT professionals who want to access its tools via a web browser or remote administration console, according to AdRem.

R1 Soft

R1 Soft's tagline says it all: "backup software for the cloud." The company brought to Interop New York its portfolio of continuous data protection, scalable and high-performance backup software for Windows and Linux servers, touting a customer base of more than 1,000 cloud infrastructure providers and more than 200,000 protected servers.

Exar 8200 & Express DX

During Interop New York, Exar announced the addition of open-source support for SSL and IPsec to its portfolio of 8200 security processors and Express DX acceleration cards. That means Exar can protect a wider variety of web-based applications using its CPU-based software and hardware-accelerated cryptographic techniques. Exar's been in the game a long time: 40 years, in fact, and these days, it specializes in silicon, software and subsystem products in use with industrial, datacom and storage

Net Optics Phantom Tap

Net Optics has won raves from channel partners and from security and infrastructure experts for its Phantom Solutions, including its Phantom Tap, capable of monitoring both physical and virtual traffic on an enterprise network. At Interop New York, Net Optics was showing off a new version of its Phantom, the Phantom HD, which it debuted about six weeks earlier at VMWorld. Phantom HD can aggregate traffic from multiple software-based Phantom Virtual Taps, as well as off the ability to view and inspect any traffic -- wired or virtual -- using remote offices, and let IT professionals see an entire inspection layer presented as one picture for quick diagnosis of network problems.

Server Technology 6.1

Like a number of vendors exhibiting at Interop New York, Server Technology was helping power the show, with Interop employing its cabinet PDUs and sentry power manager technology. But it also had new wares to show off, notably version 6.1 of its firmware. Among the highlights of 6.1, Server Technology can provide a line-by-line status of network conditions such as the CDU, the expansion unit and temperature and humidity, a view of uptime, a view of power consumption and various alerts. Customers can also integrate a smart UPS with the CDU, to allow a dashboard view of how that UPS manages voltage.

TrewPort TrewIDMCloud

"Your company needs seamless identity management," reads the big, bold message from TrewPort on its company materials. TrewPort was at Interop New York showing off a range of different identity management services it provides for Oracle environments, from identity analytics integration in Oracle Identity Manager to virtual directories, identity federation, role managers and access managers. At the show, it launched TrewIDMCloud, a single-user identity and access management platform for enterprise and cloud-based applications, and which can bundle with other tools like deployment manager and monitoring.

Thycotic Software Secret Server Enterprise Plus Edition

Thycotic Software brought to Interop New York its Secret Server Enterprise Plus Edition, which adds advanced security and disaster recovery features like clustering, session recording and SIEM integration to Secret Server, a password management software platform. Among other goodies, Thycotic offers free applications for iPhone and BlackBerry customers, an add-on for Firefox and various disaster recovery features.