INTERCONNECTS

Foundry Networks today announced it will support Network Access Protection (NAP) technology from Microsoft, an extensible, standards-based secure access solution, as a critical part of Foundry's end-to-end network security architecture. In addition to enhancing anywhere access for users, Network Access Protection technology provides a secure solution designed to reduce the complexity of building a secure network infrastructure including access to any network resource. Foundry will work closely with Microsoft to ensure integration of Network Access Protection technology with Foundry's line of award-winning, high-performance secure network infrastructure products. "IT administrators have told us that managing user access to their corporate resources in a safe and secure manner is a major concern," said Steve Anderson, director in the Windows Server Group at Microsoft Corp. "Network Access Protection technology has garnered support from industry leaders like Foundry Networks because it will help customers lower the cost of access management while simultaneously providing them with more control." Available in an update release of Windows Server 2003 (codenamed R2), Network Access Protection technology delivers a uniform method for detecting the "health state" of a client attempting to connect to a network; restricting the access until compliance to policy is validated, and updating the client to current security policy levels. "Foundry's vision of a secure network includes versatile and policy-driven network access at the edge. Our work with Microsoft through the Network Access Protection program will ensure a robust and closed-loop security solution to our customers," said Ken Cheng, senior vice president and general manager of Foundry's LAN Switching and Internet Routing Business Unit. Support for Network Access Protection technology from Microsoft will enrich Foundry's portfolio of robust, open-standard security offerings such as Foundry's IronShield(TM) Secure Edge (ISE) suite of edge security features, designed to help protect and combat unauthorized access and traffic. Foundry's ISE technology is designed to help secure the network edge and give IT departments the tools and the network-wide visibility to better manage and control network activity. With ISE features, network architects and security managers can now create advanced sophisticated networks and introduce new security measures that were once impossible to achieve with traditional networking components. IT departments are now truly able to create "defense-in-depth" networks to complement and augment their existing security components, strategies, and policies.