Websense Launches Branded Web Gateway Appliance
Websense's new branded appliance, the Websense V10000 Secure Web Gateway, is aimed squarely at the growing number of enterprise and midmarket employees using social networking and other Web 2.0 sites. Executives say that the newly launched appliance fills a valuable and growing niche for companies whose employees are more frequently visiting Web 2.0 sites such as Facebook and Twitter -- and potentially exposing the company to risk -- on their downtime.
"There's a real need in the market right now," said David Meizlik, director of product marketing for Web and data security at Websense. "You can't just say no anymore. You need to allow them to visit those sites. But you want to do it in a secure and productive manner."
A Websense partner said that Websense's migration toward comprehensive gateway appliances represents a radical departure for the company, which had primarily focused its efforts on Web filtering. However, the move was a logical next step for the company as customers continually gravitate toward appliances that house multiple functionalities.
"They never wanted to get into the hardware business, but what's the alternative?" said Kevin West, CEO of Brookline, Mass.-based KLogix. "There's a portion of the population that's in love with an appliance."
However, what distinguishes this gateway product in the marketplace is not the hardware but the capabilities of the application underneath, West said.
Using advanced analytics, the new V10000 offers Web proxy and cache capabilities, SSL-encrypted Web traffic inspection, application protocol control and management, and real-time dynamic content management in one appliance. In particular, the product is specially designed to protect against threats on user-generated sites, which includes spam and malicious links posted as comments on social networking sites, blogs and community forums.
Ultimately, the enhanced protection saves customers bandwidth and remediation costs, and reduces risk of data loss and infections, while giving greater visibility into the network, Meizlik said.
"The appliance is designed as a business enablement tool," he said. "What you're talking about is enabling your enterprise efficiency and effective use of the Web. You're also increasing the productivity of the average worker and increasing their effectiveness."
West said that what specifically makes the gateway product stand out is its ability to assess and categorize specific content on Web sites -- instead of just the sites themselves -- all in real time. As a result, users will be blocked from accessing parts of a site infected with malicious code, but still be able to view content that is deemed safe.
To ensure its partners are prepared to go to market, Websense also has launched numerous channel resources, including instructor-led technical and sales training, both in-person and online Websense University, and free hosted evaluations and demonstrations for customers, as well as white papers and on-demand Web casts on the Websense partner portal.
West said that several of his customers were already excited about the new appliance's combined capabilities.
"The reality is, if you're coming out with multiple product sets, then people want one throat to choke," West said. "You're trying to protect employees. You're also trying to protect the most valuable asset your company has, and that's its critical information."