Blue Coat Introduces ProxyAV 210 Appliance For WANs

PRESS RELEASE

SUNNYVALE, Calif., March 2, 2009 " Blue Coat Systems, Inc. (Nasdaq: BCSI), the technology leader Application Delivery Networking, today expanded the Blue Coat' ProxyAV appliance family to help enterprises optimize existing Wide Area Network (WAN) resources by enabling secure direct Internet connections to branch offices. The new ProxyAV 210 appliance eliminates the cost and congestion of backhauling Internet traffic over the WAN while enforcing centrally managed corporate IT policies, allowing enterprises to more efficiently utilize the network for the delivery of business-critical applications.

"As enterprises seek to more efficiently utilize their network resources, providing direct Internet access to the branch office is crucial to achieving improvements in application performance over the WAN," said Bethany Mayer, senior vice president of worldwide marketing at Blue Coat Systems. "The Blue Coat ProxyAV 210 appliance provides a cost-effective way for enterprises to protect their branch offices from malicious threats and enforce corporate IT policies while freeing the WAN for business-critical application traffic."

Traditionally, larger enterprises backhaul Internet traffic to and from the branch office over the WAN to the corporate Internet gateway. With the growing adoption of Web 2.0 applications and the rise of video and other bandwidth-intensive applications, this practice creates congestion on the WAN, which impacts end user experience and the performance of centralized business-critical applications. As a result, enterprises are required to add additional bandwidth capacity or implement WAN optimization techniques.

The Blue Coat ProxyAV 210 enables enterprises to cost effectively reduce traffic on the WAN with secure direct Internet connections. By eliminating the need to backhaul all Internet and external application traffic over the WAN, enterprises can efficiently deliver internal business-critical applications without the cost of increasing bandwidth capacity.

To secure direct Internet connections at the branch office, the Blue Coat ProxyAV 210 utilizes the same malware detection and policy enforcement technologies that are used to protect corporate Internet gateways. The Blue Coat ProxyAV 210 supports branch offices with up to 100 users. To provide up-to-date protection against the latest malware threats, update intervals ranging from 5 to 30 minutes can be set by the network administrator. In addition, the ProxyAV 210 appliances provide inline malware detection for Web-based threats that are hidden behind user credentials, such as web mail, file downloads and social networking sites.

The Blue Coat' ProxySG' appliances work in conjunction with the inline malware detection provided by the Blue Coat ProxyAV 210 appliances to provide proactive detection of malicious threats and Web content and application controls. ProxySG appliances use Blue Coat WebFilter, which is continuously updated by the cloud-based Blue Coat WebPulse community watch, to block hidden malware downloads on popular websites, access to objectionable and unproductive sites and downloads from unrated sites. Using the ProxySG appliance, enterprises can also inspect encrypted traffic to determine if it should be further analyzed by the ProxyAV appliance.

Centralized policy enforcement and anti-virus updates enable IT managers to simultaneously protect all employees, reducing management complexity. The combination of the ProxySG appliance and the ProxyAV appliance provides a layered approach to protecting against malware, spyware, Trojans and other malicious content and enables enterprises to realize the cost advantages of direct Internet connections while alleviating traffic congestion on the WAN.

To provide distributed enterprises with the options they need to align the network with business goals, Blue Coat ProxyAV appliances support the leading anti-malware engines from Kaspersky, McAfee, Panda Security and Sophos. This support enables enterprises to select the anti-virus engine that will best complement their security needs.

Availability and Pricing The Blue Coat ProxyAV 210 is available today. Pricing for the ProxyAV 210 starts at $2,750 in the U.S.

About Blue Coat Systems Blue Coat Systems is the technology leader in Application Delivery Networking. Blue Coat offers an Application Delivery Network Infrastructure that provides the visibility, acceleration and security required to optimize and secure the flow of information to any user, on any network, anywhere. This application intelligence enables enterprises to tightly align network investments with business requirements, speed decision making and secure business applications for long-term competitive advantage. For additional information, please visit www.bluecoat.com.