BOXBOROUGH, Mass. -- Crossbeam Systems®, Inc., the leader in Unified Threat Management (UTM) for the world’s largest networks, today announced a significant operating system upgrade to their C-Series suite of UTM platforms for intelligent, best-of-breed, security services delivery. The C-Series Operating System (COS) 6.0 brings flexible network security design with Layer 2 bridging and intelligent bypass ports to provide administrators with greater control and adaptability over security infrastructure deployments.
Layer 2 bridging support eliminates the need for network topology changes when a new security application is added, giving IT administrators the power and flexibility to decide the best design for their network. In Layer 2 mode, the C-series platform and accompanying applications are transparent to a potential hacker, adding yet more facilities to improve the security posture of the network.
With intelligent bypass ports, the administrator can now decide how best to manage traffic flows in the event of failure. A system can now be configured to permit traffic to continue to flow through the device in the event of a power or application failure. Crossbeam’s C6 provides two bypass segments, C12 provides four bypass segments, and C25 provides six bypass segments.
Both of these capabilities empower administrators to manage the balance between strong security and optimal network performance, a growing problem for organizations as security becomes increasingly virtualized and segmented throughout the network.
"In large enterprise networks, security is no longer deployed solely at the perimeter – it is also being implemented deeper within the corporate network, requiring a new level of architectural flexibility," said Bill Duross, manager, network services, Stratus Technologies. “And UTM platforms like Crossbeam's C-Series give our administrators the ability to deploy the platform as a traditional Layer 3 device, or as a transparent Layer 2 device that can be added in without altering network routing and policy."