New Generation of WatchGuard Firewalls Enable Mid-Size Enterprises to Keep Pace with Explosive Growth in Encrypted Traffic

Dramatic increase in security horsepower vaults WatchGuard's new Firebox® M400 and M500 firewalls past competition by up to 149 percent in encrypted traffic inspection and up to 61 percent in overall performance

Encrypted traffic expected to draw 50 percent of all malware by 2017; Advanced processing capacity critical to ensure IT pros can turn on all defense-in-depth security layers with confidence

News provided by

WatchGuard Technologies, Inc.

Nov 24, 2014, 11:00 ET

SEATTLE, Nov. 24, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- WatchGuard® Technologies, a leader in multi-function firewalls, today announced next-generation firewall (NGFW) and unified threat management (UTM) appliances specifically engineered for mid-size and distributed enterprises, which are struggling to effectively and affordably secure networks in the face of explosive growth in bandwidth rates, connection speeds and encrypted traffic. The WatchGuard Firebox® M400 and M500 appliances, based on the latest Intel® Pentium™ and Intel® Celeron™ Processors, are up to 61 percent faster than competing solutions with all layers of the company's award winning defense-in-depth solutions turned on[i], and up to 149 percent faster performing HTTPS inspection[ii], ensuring enterprises never have to compromise network security for performance.

Cyber criminals are using encrypted traffic to bypass security. Businesses need security that can deconstruct encrypted traffic and expose the sinister malware within - without compromising performance. WatchGuard's new Firebox M500 security appliance outperforms the competition, inspecting HTTPS traffic up to 149% faster.

WatchGuard Technologies, Inc. Logo.

Recent industry reports focus on the rise of encrypted traffic and the importance of addressing threats within those encrypted streams. According to a Gartner report entitled Security Leaders Must Address Threats from Rising SSL Traffic: "With more and more encrypted traffic, this trend is likely to expand rapidly. Gartner believes that, in 2017, more than half of the network attacks targeting enterprises will use encrypted traffic to bypass controls, up from less than five percent today.[iii]"

"The demands facing mid-size and distributed enterprise networks are the same as those faced by large enterprise networks just a few years ago," said Dave R. Taylor, vice president of corporate strategy and product management for WatchGuard Technologies. "With the growth in encrypted traffic, combined with Internet traffic increasing at 21 percent[iv] and connection speeds climbing at 42 percent[v], businesses are demanding firewalls that can keep pace. Our customers do not want to be forced to choose between protecting their networks and ensuring their end-users have the performance needed to do their jobs and with our new Firebox solutions, they don't have to."

All WatchGuard NGFW and UTM appliances run on WatchGuard's Fireware OS, which is built on the latest Intel® Pentium™ and Intel® Celeron™ Processors, allowing WatchGuard's firewall performance to continually scale. "Intel's processors give our firewall solutions the power needed to run all of their engines in parallel without causing a bottleneck in performance. Plus, it gives us 'head room' to add future engines as security trends demand," said Sin-Yaw Wang, WatchGuard's global vice president of engineering. "Our operating system is uniquely architected for speed."

"WatchGuard Firebox M400 and M500 appliances that utilize the latest generation of Intel® Core™ Processors for inspecting network traffic take advantage of new Intel® QuickAssist technology, which instantly provides a performance boost." said Steve Price, general manager of Intel's Communications Infrastructure Division. "Customers now have the ability to run their security systems at full throttle without sacrificing performance."

The WatchGuard Firebox M400 and M500 also provide the flexibility of two SFP (small form-factor pluggable) ports that can feature either 1 Gb copper or 1 Gb fiber connections, ensuring that firewalls can adapt to end-user environments. SFP transceivers are available as optional accessories. Both models feature the WatchGuard Fireware OS, v.11.9.4. This software version includes new features to simplify deep inspection of HTTPS traffic, allowing users to include names instead of numbers in their policy definitions. Click here to find out more.

About WatchGuard Technologies, Inc.
WatchGuard® Technologies, Inc. is a global leader of integrated, multi-function business security solutions that intelligently combine industry standard hardware, best-of-breed security features, and policy-based management tools. WatchGuard provides easy-to-use, but enterprise-powerful protection to hundreds of thousands of businesses worldwide. WatchGuard products are backed by WatchGuard LiveSecurity® Service, an innovative support program. WatchGuard is headquartered in Seattle, Wash. with offices throughout North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, and Latin America. To learn more, visit WatchGuard.com.

For additional information, promotions and updates, follow WatchGuard on Twitter @WatchGuardTech on Facebook, or on the LinkedIn Company page.

WatchGuard is a registered trademark of WatchGuard Technologies, Inc. All other marks are property of their respective owners.

[i] Miercom Performance Report http://www.watchguard.com/docs/analysis/miercom_report_112014.pdf
[ii] IBID
[iii]Gartner, Inc. "Security Leaders Must Address Threats from Rising SSL Traffic" by Jeremy D'Hoinne and Adam Hils, December 9, 2013
Gartner does not endorse any vendor, product or service depicted in its research publications, and does not advise technology users to select only those vendors with the highest ratings or other designation. Gartner research publications consist of the opinions of Gartner's research organization and should not be construed as statements of fact. Gartner disclaims all warranties, expressed or implied, with respect to this research, including any warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose.
[iv] Akamai state of the internet report 2014
[v] Cisco Global IP network forecast: http://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/solutions/collateral/service-provider/ip-ngn-ip-next-generation-network/white_paper_c11-481360.html

Contacts:
Kerry Desberg
WatchGuard Technologies
(206) 613-3760
[email protected]

Justin Hall
Voxus PR
253-444-5442
[email protected]

Photo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20141122/160374

Logo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20141122/160373LOGO

Logo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20140224/SF69246LOGO

To view the original version on PR Newswire, visit:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/new-generation-of-watchguard-firewalls-enable-mid-size-enterprises-to-keep-pace-with-explosive-growth-in-encrypted-traffic-300000018.html

SOURCE WatchGuard Technologies, Inc.