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3Com unveiled a new IPS (intrusion prevention system) appliance for large enterprises and service providers on Jan. 30 called TippingPoint M60.
The new appliance is the product of a 2003 joint venture between 3Com and Chinese networking equipment maker Huawei. It can stop denial of service attacks and block communications from worms, viruses, Trojan horse programs and spyware.
It can support up to 12 5GB per second IPS blades, for a maximum throughput of 60G bps, allowing customers to deploy the appliance closer to the center of enterprise networks, said Andy Salo, director of product management in 3Coms TippingPoint division.
3Com paid $160 million in the 2003 deal for the rights to sell Huawei technology outside China and Japan, where the technology is sold under the name of the joint venture, 3Com-Huawei.
3Com also received access to Huawei enterprise networking technology, engineering expertise and sales and marketing as part of the deal.
Huawei built the hardware chassis and surrounding component used in the M60 and 3Com supplied the IPS blades that power the device, Salo said.
The new device is being marketed to customers in the financial services, healthcare and educational fields, where demands for high bandwidth are common. The device can support more than two million simultaneous connections and one million connections per second, with little latency, the company said in a statement.
The M60 comes in seven, ten or 14-slot versions, with a maximum of 12 5GB per second IPS modules possible per appliance, 3Com said in a statement.
3Com and Huawei are challenging Cisco Systems dominance in the networking equipment market. The M60 will compete directly against Cisco Catalyst 6500 Switches, Salo said.
The new product emphasizes features that 3Com customers have been demanding, such as greater port density. The M60 has 12 Gigabit Ethernet ports, which can be used to create 144 Gigabit ports per appliance, 50 percent more than the previous TippingPoint IPS product, the company said.
With up to 60G bps throughput, service providers can use the M60 to provide security for network traffic. Alternatively, enterprises could use it within the network to enhance security between network segments, said Jon Oltsik of Enterprise Strategy Group in an e-mail message.
The M60 appliance will be available in the second half of 2006. The price has not been set for the new product, but will be charged per-IPS module and be roughly equivalent to the cost of 3Coms existing TippingPoint IPS technology, Salo said.