Bluesocket Leads Wi-Fi Market and Announces Version 4.0 WLAN Software
Bluesocket Continues Wi-Fi Market Leadership, Passes 600 Customer Mark. Version 4.0 adds features for security, scalability, policy enforcement, and management of data and voice traffic in enterprise-class WLANs
BURLINGTON, MA & LAS VEGAS, NV (Booth 2847, N+I 2004)--May 11, 2004/The Wi-Fi Technology Forum/-Bluesocket Inc., the leading vendor of open-systems wireless local area network (WLAN) systems to secure and manage wireless access to networks and the Internet, today announced Version 4.0 software -- the next generation of enterprise wireless LAN security and management solutions.
Illustrating its leadership position, the company also announced it has sold its Wireless Gateway systems into more than 600 different end-user organizations (in more than
40 countries worldwide). "In an crowded market clouded by hype from competitors, Bluesocket stands out as the clear WLAN leader with more customers, more installed units, in more countries and a stronger channel than any of the wireless switch vendors," said Bob Darabant, VP of worldwide sales.
At Bluesocket's booth (#2847) in the Interop Wireless Pavilion, the company will showcase its line of award-winning Wireless Gateways including the WG-5000 Wireless Gateway, a core network system for airtight, HIPAA-compliant security and policy-based management for Wi-Fi networks that can support up to 1,000 simultaneous users and hundreds of Access Points from any vendor.
Bluesocket Wireless Gateways (WGs) secure and control Wi-Fi networks and provide universal authentication, Secure Mobility™, policy and bandwidth management through unparalleled interoperability with legacy infrastructure and WLAN standards. Bluesocket has received numerous awards including 'Editors' Choice Award' (Communications News),
'Best Indoor/Campus Wireless' (TiECon), 'Product of the Year' (Mass Telecom. Council),
'Best Security Product' (Networking Industry Awards), 'Readers' Choice Award' (InfoWorld), 'Best in Show' (N+I/Sydney) and 'Outstanding Product of the Year' (Channel Awards).
Version 4.0 Software
"Bluesocket's new Version 4.0 functionality contains key features required by large
enterprises to enable successful rollouts of Wi-Fi gear,” said Mike Puglia, Sr. Product Manager. "We've had extensive input from hundreds of customers and this new offering delivers important capabilities around IDS/worm protection, secure roaming for VoWLAN, load sharing across Wireless Gateways for enterprise scalability, and enhanced support for a Cisco WLAN infrastructure," said Puglia.
"Mobile applications will grow enterprise WLANs to $1.7 billion by 2008," said David Gross, senior analyst, Wireless Data Research. "Bluesocket's Wireless Gateways are a proven solution for enterprises to manage and secure wireless networks, while integrating and extending their existing networks and systems. Through its new version 4.0 software, Bluesocket continues to improve the capabilities of heterogeneous networks based on architecture from Cisco, HP, and other vendors."
Version 4.0's Enterprise Focused Features
Bluesocket's Version 4.0 provides a new level of WLAN functionality for enterprises, including:
Intrusion Detection and Worm Protection
Unlike signature based tools or OS specific scanners, Bluesocket has implemented real-time monitoring of Wi-Fi users' data to detect malicious traffic based on the users' actual behavior without requiring any client-side software. This enables administrators to automatically block network access to hackers or worm infected users even for “zero-day” attacks well before traditional signature-based tools have updates available.
Enhanced Support for Cisco WLANs and the new EAP-FAST Protocol
Bluesocket continues to expand its industry leading support for complementing Cisco AP based WLAN environments. With Version 4.0, Bluesocket is the first vendor to support the new EAP-FAST protocol for 802.1x and WPA, published by Cisco as a proposed IETF Standard. Along with other EAP methods such as LEAP, PEAP, TTLS, TLS and MD5, Bluesocket now provides the widest variety of authentication and security methods among all WLAN infrastructure vendors. Additionally, Bluesocket Wireless Gateways now provide deeper user to AP monitoring for Cisco APs and also has added support for Cisco Discovery Protocol (CDP), thus offering superior integration into existing Cisco-based networks.
Secure Mobility (tm) Roaming with VoIP over WLAN
Bluesocket was the first vendor to introduce Secure Mobility (tm) (secure Layer 3 wireless subnet roaming) and builds upon its innovation with this new software iteration. Version 4.0 introduces advanced stateful firewall support for VoWLAN devices, which removes the need to build a separate VoIP VLAN and can prevent hackers gaining entrance to the network by hijacking open VoIP sessions. Bluesocket's fast roaming handoffs provide the low latency, jitter suppression and session persistence required for VoIP, while maintaining a secure environment. Mike Houston, Marketing Director at TeleSym, Inc. (software leader in voice over IP & Bluesocket partner): "Enterprises are clamoring for secure and reliable roaming on their voice networks. Working together, Bluesocket and TeleSym delivers robust, reliable voice services to laptops, PDAs and other mobile computers, with the security users expect."
Load Sharing Across Wireless Gateways
As enterprises move from initial WLAN pilot deployments to enterprise-wide WLANs, the number of users grows rapidly. Bluesocket supports higher numbers of simultaneous users on the same network using its new Load Sharing capabilities. This enables administrators to manage and scale WLAN performance by distributing user traffic across WGs in the network.
HP OpenView Support
Bluesocket has expanded its management functionality, required for large Wi-Fi deployments by incorporating Bluesocket management functions into HP OpenView. This allows NOC admins using HP OpenView to expand their traditional "wired view" into the wireless world.
About Bluesocket
Bluesocket, Inc. (
http://www.bluesocket.com) is a leading manufacturer of systems to control and secure wireless local area networks (WLANs) for enterprises, institutions and public access venues in more than 45 countries worldwide. Thousands of Bluesocket Wireless Gateways are deployed by enterprises including the National Security Agency, Lehman Brothers, University of California, Parker Hannifin and others who required an elegant open-systems solutions to secure, manage, and profit from their WLANs. With offices in North America, Europe and Asia, Bluesocket, Inc. is a private, global corporation managed by executives from BT, Cisco, Digital, GTE, Ericsson, Intel, NetScreen, Nortel; other industry leaders.
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